Smart Meters: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing Electricity - Smart Grid (R) Evolution: Electric Power Struggles - page 121

National Grid has created a publicly accessible Sustainability Hub that demonstrates
technologies and provides a help desk for pilot participants to learn more about the
technologies and the dynamic pricing options.
The Worcester pilot program is an opt-out program, meaning that smart meters will be
installed at the households of the pilot participants unless the customer requests not to
be involved. For participating customers, advanced Intron meters have been installed and
the two-year pilot program officially began in spring 2014. The pilot includes assessment
of behavior change in four categories of households: (1) households with only the
outside-the-home smart meter with web-based access to monitoring, (2) households that
also have an in-home display, (3) households with automatic heating, ventilation, and air
conditioning (HVAC) controls (no in-home display), and (4) households with in-home
display and other advanced controls, including automatic thermostat and HVAC. This $44
million Worcester pilot program, the largest of its kind in Massachusetts, has attracted
some significant local controversy and the Stop Smart Meters! organization has been active
in the city. Some of those involved in opposing smart meters in Worcester are not city
residents, but they passionately engage with and provide support for local opposition.
Citizens worried about the health risks of wireless technologies have flocked to Worcester
to mobilize an opposition movement (Wright 2013 ). In spring 2014 a subcommittee of the
Worcester City Council voted to instruct National Grid to postpone its pilot project until
more was known about the risks of these smart meters.
The Worcester example demonstrates how some of the opposition to smart meters in
the Northeast of the United States is part of a larger set of concerns that first emerged
in California in 2009 and 2010. In April 2014, a Worcester City Council subcommittee
recommended a one-year delay of National Grid's pilot project, citing too many
unanswered questions regarding health, security, and privacy (Kotsopoulos 2014 ) .
5.4.3 Smart Meter Deployment in Germany
The story of smart meter deployment in Germany offers some important lessons and
insights related to potential downsides of mandating across-the-board deployment of any
specific technology. Rather than accepting and working toward the EU Energy Directive
requiring that 80 percent of European households have smart meters by 2020, Germany
has developed a more gradual and selective approach to installing smart meters, with a
focus on deployment in buildings and households where the potential for energy reduction
is high. Germany's more selective approach was not received well by the smart meter
industry, which has been benefiting from smart meter rollout programs driven by the EU
Energy Directive in countries throughout Europe. But the more sophisticated and nuanced