Naperville: The Smart Meter battle

Smart-meter foes look ahead after losing Naperville council election    Permalink April 11

Naperville City Council candidates Tom Glass and Jo Malik wait for election results Tuesday night at Jackson Avenue Pub. Neither won a seat on the council. (Melissa Jenco, Chicago Tribune / April 10, 2013)

By Melissa Jenco
Tribune reporter


Two vocal opponents of Naperville's smart meter program who fell short in their bids for City Council seats said Wednesday that issue was just a small piece of the campaign and their future involvement.

Jo Malik and Tom Glass, the only two candidates endorsed by the Naperville Smart Meter Awareness opposition group, finished sixth and ninth respectively in a field of 11 candidates running for four spots on the council.

The two have become fixtures at City Council meetings in recent years voicing their criticism of the wireless electric meters the city has now installed on more than 57,000 homes in an effort to make the power system more efficient.

Naperville Smart Meter Awareness has expressed concerns about health, safety, security and privacy issues with the meters. Glass is one of the group's board members. He and Malik signed onto a 2011 federal lawsuit against the city.

But the two say the meters were just the starting point for their involvement in city politics.

"It's an issue that got my attention, but I'm more concerned with irresponsible behavior by city management in general," Glass said.

The two acknowledged that some voters might have seen them as single-issue candidates if they did not take the time to look a little deeper. Running as newcomers in a field that included three incumbents also presented a challenge, they said, and they found themselves battling city councilmen who weren't up for re-election but who publicly opposed them.

Incumbent Paul Hinterlong, the race's top vote-getter, said he believes the smart-meter opponents' loss says more about what it takes to get elected than it does about the meter issue itself. The ideal candidate, he said, is somebody who is well-rounded and is involved in the community in groups like city commissions.

"Somebody who has been in the community, is doing things in the community where they get recognized, they get to learn how it works, they get to know people along the way," he said.

In addition to Hinterlong, incumbents Judy Brodhead and Doug Krause kept their seats Tuesday and will be joined by Dave Wentz, a Naperville Township trustee.

Krause, who has been a councilman since 1989, said he believes Glass and Malik's harsh criticism of the city might have turned away some voters.

"The message they were giving out on that I felt was inaccurate, inflammatory," Krause said.

Glass said he did not want to pander to the voters.

"There's probably a group of people that want to believe it's a great place and I think it's a great town that's worth saving, but it's an imperfect place just like anything," he said. "And the only things I was critical of were factual things that were wrong."

Neither Malik nor Glass knows for sure whether she or he will run again in two years. In the meantime, Malik likely will be focusing on issues like the Water Street development while Glass listed city transparency as a top concern.

As for smart meters, Malik said one of the only things left for opponents to do is push councilmen for a nonwireless alternative meter with a price tag lower than the current monthly fee of $24.75.

Krause, who was not endorsed by Naperville Smart Meter Awareness, has advocated in recent months for doing just that. He said he will continue to do so, though his proposals haven't gained traction with councilmen thus far.

mjenco@tribune.com

 

Smart meter foes resurrect court fight    Permalink April 8

By Melissa Jenco
Tribune reporter

Opponents of Naperville's smart meter program have re-filed their federal lawsuit to include more evidence to back up their concerns over health, safety and security and show their constitutional rights are being violated.

The amended lawsuit now seeks to force the city to replace smart meters with analog meters upon residents' request at no cost.

"A lot of new information has come out in the past year and a lot of additional bad behavior from the city," said Doug Ibendahl, attorney for the smart meter opponents.

The city has installed smart meters on more than 57,000 homes that officials say will help them operate the electric system in a more efficient, reliable and cost-effective manner.

But members of the Naperville Smart Meter Awareness group filed a federal lawsuit in December 2011 citing "a multitude of serious health, safety, security and privacy concerns" over the meters that wirelessly transmit data about electric use to the city, which runs the utility.

Judge John Z. Lee questioned both sides about the case for about two hours in September and issued a 24-page written decision last month that dismisses claims residents' constitutional rights are being violated. However, he allowed the smart meter opponents to re-file an amended lawsuit.

The revised litigation describes some of the clashes the opponents have had with the city including the January arrests of two of its leaders for interfering with meter installation. It also touches on issues other cities have had with fires related to smart meter installation, points to the hacking of Naperville's website to show there are security risks and further details concerns over the effect of radio frequency on health.

The suit alleges violations of residents' constitutional rights to due process, equal protection, protection from unreasonable searches and protection from invasion of privacy. It also now accuses the city of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.

City officials have repeatedly said the meters are safe and that safeguards are in place to protect customers' privacy. City Attorney Margo Ely said she again will ask Lee to dismiss the lawsuit.

"We believe the lawsuit lacks merit," she said. "I think it's a fair public policy debate to have, but smart meters do not violate people's constitutional rights."

mjenco@tribune.com

 

Judge dismisses suit against Naperville smart meter program    Permalink March 23

Opponents of Naperville's smart meter project criticized city officials Tuesday for arresting two of their own who are accused of interfering with the installation process.  ( Melissa Jenco, Chicago Tribune / February 5, 2013 )

By Melissa Jenco
Tribune reporter

A judge has dismissed a federal lawsuit against the city of Naperville filed by opponents to its smart meter program.

However, leaders of the Naperville Smart Meter Awareness group say they plan to file a revised lawsuit within 14 days.

The city has installed smart meters on more than 57,000 homes that officials say will help them operate the electric system in a more efficient, reliable and cost-effective manner.

But members of the Naperville Smart Meter Awareness group filed a federal lawsuit in December 2011 citing "a multitude of serious health, safety, security and privacy concerns" over the meters that wirelessly transmit data about electric use to the city, which runs the utility. Smart meter opponents allege in the suit the city has violated their constitutional rights to due process, protection from unreasonable searches and protection from the government taking private property.

Judge John Z. Lee questioned both sides about the case for about two hours in September and issued a 24-page written decision Friday that dismisses the claims. In the opinion, he writes the smart meter opponents did not exhaust all state remedies for their claims and did not prove radio frequency from the meters is actually harming people. He also found the city has precautions in place to keep customer data from being disclosed without their consent and rejected the claim the city will collect personal details about customers' lives.

"Even assuming that a smart meter is technically able to measure electrical usage and load to such minute detail, and one were able to ascertain personal details about a resident's life from such data, the mere existence of such a capability does not reasonably lead to an inference that it is actually being employed," Lee wrote.

Naperville City Manager Doug Krieger applauded the decision Saturday.

"Obviously we're pleased with the outcome," Krieger said. "We believe the federal court got it right in granting the motion to dismiss."

Krieger did not immediately have a figure as to how much money the city has spent defending the lawsuit.

Lee said he will allow the smart meter opponents to re-file an amended lawsuit within 14 days and the group said it plans to do just that.

"We see it really as a very big positive," said Jennifer Stahl, secretary of Naperville Smart Meter Awareness. "The judge writing his 24-page opinion provides a lot of insight as to what his perspective is regarding the case. He could have dismissed it with prejudice which would have been it's over, period."

Stahl said the group will introduce new evidence including the January arrests of herself and the group’s president, Kim Bendis. The two are accused of interfering with meter installation.

mjenco@tribune.com

 

Smart meter opponents limited in hearing participation    Permalink March 6

By Melissa Jenco
Tribune reporter

Smart meter opponents in Naperville will not play as large a role in the city's hearings on federal energy standards as they had hoped.

A hearing officer on Monday denied the Naperville Smart Meter Awareness group's request to intervene in the matter, meaning the group will not have the power to call or cross-examine witnesses or make objections.

The group will still be able to participate in the public comment portion of the hearings.

The city is considering whether to adopt nine federal energy standards regarding net metering, fuel diversity, enhancement of the efficiency of fossil fuel generation, time-based metering, interconnection standards, integrated resource planning, rate design modifications, consideration of smart grid investments and smart grid information.

The city already has installed smart meters on more than 57,000 homes amid protests by Naperville Smart Meter Awareness group, which has expressed concerns about health, safety, security and privacy issues. The city says the meters will improve the efficiency and reliability of its electric system.

Monday's hearing was the first of two regarding federal energy standards. City attorney Kristen Foley asked that Naperville Smart Meter Awareness be denied the ability to intervene in the hearings because it is not a person or state or federal agency that purchases electricity as required by federal law.

"The petition to intervene was filed on behalf of a not-for-profit corporation that does not have a utility account and to whom the city does not sell electricity," she said.

Doug Ibendahl, attorney for the smart meter opponents, argued the group's leaders, Kim Bendis and Jennifer Stahl, are electric customers and that it is not uncommon for a group to intervene in a case.

"It is clearly a desperate effort to silence my clients, Naperville Smart Meter Awareness, as well as Ms. Bendis and Ms. Stahl," he said.

He also took issue with the City Council's absence and the hearing officer being a city attorney, Jill Wilger.

Wilger denied Ibendahl's request to intervene in the hearings, saying the Naperville Smart Meter Awareness group is neither a person nor a utility customer as required by federal law.

Three people provided public comment during the hearing and were critical of the city's smart meter program as well as the electric utility as a whole.

"Their charter calls for providing safe, efficient, sufficient electrical service at reasonable and competitive rates," resident Gerard Schilling said. "It is not to advocate for or convert to sustainable communities, Agenda 21, green energy pie-in-the-sky utopian global warming ideologies which will inflict punitive and restrictive rate structures."

Julie Klepczarek argued she has a right to keep an analog meter on her home. Michael Anderson agreed and expressed security concerns about the wireless meters.

"Even the city of Naperville's own Internet and data systems have been … hacked so to tell me this system is not hackable is a lie," Anderson said. "Not only is it … hackable you now add 57,000 access points for people to come in."

Monday's hearing also included an hour of testimony by Mark Curran, director of public utilities-electric, about the city's position on the nine federal standards.

Curran and his staff recommend waiving five of the standards because the city either already has a similar standard in place or does not generate its own electricity.

Curran called for adopting three standards in full -- time-based metering, rate design modification and smart grid investments. The ninth standard, smart grid information, would be adopted in part with the exception of portions that don't apply to the city, under Curran's recommendation.

Time-based metering, he said, would allow the city to reduce its own costs and those of customers as it institutes peak and off-peak rates. Rate design modifications, he said, provide incentives to customers who use energy more efficiently. The city already has several such programs in place and plans to institute additional programs this year.

In addition, Curran said smart grid technologies, "have been deployed by the city to improve reliability, system performance and cost effectiveness."

The second public hearing of federal energy standards will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 19 at the municipal center, 400 S. Eagle St. The city also will accept written comments through that date. For more information, visit http://www.naperville.il.us/utilityhearing.aspx.

mjenco@tribune.com

 

Smart meter foes appear in court    Permalink Feb. 26

Jennifer Stahl, left, and Malia "Kim" Bendis. (Naperville Police Department photos)

Two opponents of Naperville's smart meter initiative recently made their first court appearances in connection with their Jan. 23 arrests.

Jennifer Stahl, of the 1400 block of Westglen Drive, pleaded not guilty to two ordinance violations — interfering with a police officer and preventing access to customer premises. She is due back in court March 20.

Malia "Kim" Bendis of the 2200 block of Mercer Court appeared in court briefly Tuesday on two misdemeanor charges — attempted eavesdropping and resisting a peace officer — but has not yet entered a plea.

She is due back in court April 24.

Naperville woman faces down smart power meters    Permalink Feb. 14

Jennifer Stahl, an opponent of Naperville's  smart meter technology, was arrested along with another woman  for interfering with the installation of the meter (on wall at left)  at Stahl's home last month.  (Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune) 


A mother of three who buys organic food and worries about the dangers of "dirty electricity" has become the face of resistance in Naperville.

Led away in handcuffs after trying to prevent the installation of a "smart meter" on her home, Jennifer Stahl vows to continue the protest movement that has made this suburban community ground zero in a battle over privacy rights versus modern technology.

"This is unreasonable search and seizure," said Stahl, 40, who believes the devices designed to monitor power use are intrusive and pose a health risk. "It definitely is not OK for my utility ... to know when I'm home and not home."

The arrests of Stahl and another prominent opponent, Malia "Kim" Bendis, 40, only heightened tensions between city officials and members of Naperville Smart Meter Awareness, a group of residents who started to organize nearly two years ago. The group now numbers about 75 volunteers, Stahl said.

Police have become involved in the ongoing ruckus, accompanying installers at homes where residents had repeatedly refused a meter. Officers recently lined the City Council chambers when dozens of opponents showed up to protest the two arrests.

The devices are capable of using wireless signals to relay detailed information about an individual consumer's power consumption.

Proponents say the meters will ease the strain on the nation's overburdened electrical grid, reducing power outages. The information collected by the meters, they add, will make it easier for consumers to see when electricity is in low demand and less expensive so they can tailor their use of major appliances to save money.

But opponents say the meters provide so much information that everyone from cops to criminals to marketing departments can learn when people are home and what they do when they're there.

Last year, the anti-meter movement fell just short of collecting enough signatures to place a question on the ballot asking residents to decide whether the devices should be removed. They also have a pending federal lawsuit against the city alleging that their constitutional right to due process has been violated.

The group sent out an email this week asking members to show up at the council meeting Tuesday as it renewed its call for elected officials to resign and for City Manger Doug Krieger to be fired.

Naperville, which operates its own electric utility, has installed more than 57,000 meters and has about 150 left to go, said Krieger, who has a smart meter on his home.

"Overall, the meters are good for the city's customers," Krieger said. "They're going to allow us to offer lower rates, they're going to make our system more reliable and secure, and they are going to allow us to provide programs to residents who, on a voluntary basis, can participate to save even more money."

The $24 million project added the city's 142,000 residents to the growing number of U.S. households and businesses equipped with smart meters.

Wealth of information

The number of homes with smart meters has tripled nationally since 2009, said Howard A. Scott, managing director of Cognyst Advisors, which provides consulting services to utility companies and governments in the United States and abroad.

"As of the end of 2012, we counted 60,450,428 smart meter installations in the U.S. and Canada," Scott said. "About 10 percent are in Canada, and 10 percent are business and industrial. You could probably say that just below 50 million are in U.S. residences."

The meters are capable of communicating with smart appliances — such as dishwashers, furnaces and dryers — and with digital apps that tell homeowners how much electricity they're using and how much it costs. Because electricity is more expensive during certain parts of the day when more people use it, homeowners can track use and save money by doing laundry when rates are lower.

Consumers also can let the utility remotely control devices such as air conditioners and furnaces, turning them off or lowering their output for short periods to help reduce stress on the electrical grid.

Naperville's meters are programmed to take readings every 15 minutes, providing nearly 3,000 separate meter readings a month rather than the once-a-month reading with traditional analog meters.

Meter readings taken at 15-minute intervals can provide a wealth of information, such as when people are home, go to bed or use their large-screen TV, said Jennifer Urban, co-director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law.

Mark Curran, director of public utilities-electric for Naperville, disagrees.

"I don't know how you could absolutely say from this one data point you could tell what was on … because you're just getting the total amount of power that went through … that meter in that 15-minute period," he said.

Opponents question whether Naperville will be able to prevent unauthorized access to personal information and fear the wireless system will be more vulnerable to hackers.

Krieger said the U.S. Department of Energy approved Naperville's security measures, and the city enlisted an outside firm to test its security features.

Naperville officials likewise drafted a Customer Bill of Rights that prohibits the release of private information about individual customers but allows the city to disseminate aggregate data to certain energy, governmental and academic researchers.

Health worries

Privacy hasn't been the only concern for meter opponents.

After researching the devices, Stahl concluded they could be harmful.

"If this is going to be a potential health hazard to me and my family, that's just not right," said Stahl, who

received two ordinance violation citations: interfering with a police officer and preventing access to customer premises. Bendis was charged with two misdemeanors: attempted eavesdropping and resisting a peace officer.

Stahl said the city is downplaying the strength of the meters' signal and expressed concern that prolonged exposure to their radio frequency could have negative health effects.

Dr. Mark A. Roberts of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine said some people have complained of health effects from radio frequency, but there is no reliable research to support the claims.

"I know of no study, scientific, peer-reviewed published study, that shows ... the radio frequency emitted from smart meters cause measurable adverse outcomes," he said.

Opponents also have cited the risk of house fires tied to the new meters. A small percentage of homes in other cities have experienced fires related to smart meter installation, but those involved faulty hookups or "defective equipment" already on the homes. None has been reported in Naperville.

Meanwhile, the city has made installation of a new meter mandatory but offers a digital nonwireless version at a cost of $68.35 for the meter itself and $24.75 per month to manually read it.

Roughly 270 people have chosen the nonwireless option, Krieger said.

Stahl said that since the anti-meter group formed, it has heard from many who expressed gratitude for its efforts.

There's no backing down, she said, from something as important as constitutional and property rights and the right to refuse the new technology.

"How," she asked, "can I just roll over and say, 'Never mind'?"

mjenco@tribune.com

mwalberg@tribune.com

 

2 meter opponents arrested in Naperville: 'A society of violating one another'    Permalink Jan. 24

Jennifer Stahl, left, and Malia "Kim" Bendis. (Naperville Police Department photos)

By Melissa Jenco
Tribune reporter

Two vocal opponents of Naperville’s initiative to install wireless electric meters on homes were arrested after interfering with the installation process, according to city officials.

Police are accompanying crews this week as they install smart meters at homes that previously sent away installers.

“The previous installation attempts were met with some resistance and we wanted to ensure our employees’ safety,” City Manager Doug Krieger said.

Naperville has installed smart meters on 57,000 homes and is about 99 percent through with the process. Officials have said the project will make the electric system more reliable and efficient and reduce costs.

However, the Naperville Smart Meter Awareness group has expressed concerns over whether the wireless meters will affect health, security and privacy. The group has a federal lawsuit pending against the city.

The two women arrested Wednesday are leaders of the group.

Malia "Kim" Bendis of the 2200 block of Mercer Court was charged with two misdemeanors — attempted eavesdropping and resisting a peace officer.

Jennifer Stahl of the 1400 block of Westglen Drive, received two ordinance violation citations — interfering with a police officer and preventing access to customer premises.

Stahl, who was released from custody about 4:30 p.m., said when she refused the smart meter, installers accompanied by police cut the bicycle lock she had placed on her fence and entered her backyard. She then stood in front of her electric meter and refused to move.

“It was forced on my house today,” she said. “It was really a violation. I violated something, but I’ve been violated too so I guess we’re now in a society of violating one another.”

The city, which has repeatedly declared the wireless meters to be safe, offers a non-wireless alternative meter to residents with concerns. There is a $68.35 initial fee for a non-wireless meter plus a $24.75 monthly fee for manually reading it. Stahl said residents who want a non-wireless meter should not have to pay for it, and said she represents other homeowners who were not able to continue to refuse the wireless meter installation.

“I have not done the work of attempting to educate the community and advocating for the right of anybody in Naperville to refuse the smart meter just to stand off to the side,” she said.

Bendis exited the Naperville Police Department about an hour later to handful of smart meter opponents who cheered for her release.  She declined comment, citing the advice of her attorney.

Krieger defended the city moving forward with installation of the meters despite the objections from some homeowners.

“The city has always had and maintains the right to access our equipment, and today we were simply exercising that right,” he said.

mjenco@tribune.com

Twitter: @TribLocal