This is a wireless smart meter. It's been accused of many faults: transmitting radio signals that affect the health of some people who claim to be sensitive to such things; causing fires; spying on residents and collecting "data" on electrical use....
What it does do (or will do, at some point) is measure electrical power use based on time of day so customers can be charged more for peak use and less for off-peak use. Personally, I think this is an excellent idea. All power grids and generating capacity have to be designed to meet peak use and if some of the demand can be shifted to off hours, it delays the need to build more dams on wild rivers, build more coal-fired power stations or (heaven forbid) nuclear generating stations. Anyone who claims to be even just a little bit environmental should applaud this.
What it might make possible is for customers to select their billing cycles, something that's not possible when meters are read manually. Not a big thing, but convenient.
What is also might make possible is for the power company to track down areas of power outages more easily (ie: faster). This might be handy, especially in a rural area where we are some distance from the closest depot of the power company.
What it likely can't do, at least on it's own, is cause fires. My understanding is that there have been problems with the meter base - old, corroded contacts. I was told that some were so bad that it's a wonder that the old meter worked.
What it can't do is spy into how you're using your electricity. It's possible that some "smart appliances" could be controlled at some time in the future, but even with our (relatively new) appliances, the best we can do is manually delay their operation until later in the evening, into the off-peak hours.
The radio waves that the meters generate are perhaps the biggest concern. True, they do broadcast radio signals a few times a day. But so do your microwaves, your cell phones, your wireless router and various portable computing devices, and almost all electrical equipment will radiate various frequencies of radio waves when they are operating.
All the frantic concern is somewhat amusing. But then we're talking about people who believe that jet contrails are really "chemtrails", being part of a massive conspiracy to spread mind-control chemicals over the populace. In the meantime, some are "locking up" their power meter, demanding "radio off" meters, and so on. <sigh>
It's time for the tin foil hats.
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