What are Smart Meters Doing to Marylanders?

A new report shares registered smart meter complaints from the PSC from October 1, 2012 through December 10, 2013 to see if the international trend of problems associated with smart meters existed in Maryland.

It does. Samples of written complaints (1,863 total), sent by Maryland residents, were reviewed. Complaints registered by email or telephone were withheld because the Public Service Commission said there were too many to send.

There was one complaint of a fire, several examples of severe health effects, meter malfunctions, meter reading errors, property damage, blatant deception and bullying by the utility representatives and/or installers and a few threats of electric disconnections. Many people complained of not receiving prior or post notice of installation. Even with the proper written deferral requests sent in to the utility, people were complaining of installers ignoring their pleas to stop the installation process. There were a plethora of extreme billing disputes and customers with outrageously higher bills were saying that their neighbors were having the same issue since their smart meter installation.

One person had two major appliances burn out the same day (water heater and washing machine) after her smart was installed and three weeks later her dishwasher burned out. One attorney wrote that his bill skyrocketed from $180 to $800 per month range and like so many others was told that his smart meter was accurate and there was nothing he could do.

Mostly, there were numerous accounts of people with new smart meters experiencing sky-high bills for no apparent reason.

See the full report here: http://marylandsmartmeterawareness.org/smart-meter-news/registered-smart-meter-complaints-in-marylan...