THE GRID HAS ISSUES

M.G.L. c. 164, § 116C requires a centralized repository of real-time or nearly real-time customer data for all utilities and potentially for third parties (e.g. apps). That real-time data amounts to constant wireless transmissions harmful to health, besides additional threats to privacy, of data crime, a hackable grid, ‘mistaken’ mischarging, biased algorithms, faulty electrical design, poor power quality, and energy draw with heat.

Massachusetts advocates have worked hard since c. 2012 to share smart grid harm with our Department of Utilities (DPU), legislators, governor, and the Attorney General’s office: directly to the utility division; civil rights division; state hearings, and in-person to assistant attorney generals. The result in 2021 was the right to opt out for a fee, initially only if the utility agreed. Opt-outs are now allowable at all utilities, but costs vary widely: e.g., Eversource mandates $34 monthly, a reduction from an initial much higher fee, while Holyoke G&E allows $25 quarterly.

‘Smart’ meters transmit powerfully and fairly constantly on your home – transmissions are more frequent than older ‘AMR’ meters or those that only transmitted once a billing period. As a result, ‘smart’ meters are widely associated with triggering sudden onset of poor health, whether headaches, cancer, or otherwise – including strokes when in close proximity. While direct links to state and federal testimony often change or disappear, examples of expert testimony & research to this effect has been provided, such as by:

Beatrice Golomb, PhD
Richard Conrad, PhD.
Andrew A. Marino, PhD
De Kun Li, PhD
David Carpenter, MD; Dr. Lennart Hardell, MD, PhD; Dr. Magda Havas, BSc, PhD; Dr. Martha Herbert, MD, PhD; and Dr. Sam Milham, MD, MPH here
Court Testimony – Building Biology Institute & Children’s Health Defense here
William Bathgate, BBEC, EMRS, IEEE RFSO; Atty. Odette Wilkins; Les Jamieson here
Dr. Lamech, on self-reporting of symptoms in a government database in Australia
and many, many others.

As it is, utilities do not bear liability risks, because legal and any other costs (e.g., smart grid infrastructure) are shifted onto ratepayers.

Our Governor, DPU, AGO, & Top-Down Legislature are Deaf to Safety

Despite appeals in numerous dockets (e.g., 20-69; 13-83, 12-76, 12-76-A; 21-80, 21-81, 21-82; 21-90, 21-91, 21-92; 15-120 – select public commenter then click filter) and testimony and letters provided to leaders, our DPU, legislature, attorney general’s office, and governors have been deaf for more than a decade.

Despite a mandate to protect ratepayers, the attorney general’s office appears to have neglected the enormous expense of the digital grid as well as civil and environmental rights – despite the filing of civil rights complaints.

Senator Michael Moore has sponsored a bill for over a decade to allow the free option of an analog meter, continually sent to ‘study’. In 2025-2026, this same bill was put forward by new Representative Estela Reyes as H.3551 and has, for the first time, moved forward but been redrawn to allow continued fees. The change appears due to a citizen-initiated 2025 petition initiative to overturn smart meter requirements, allowing free analog replacements, which failed to win but garnered massive public support.

In sum, it seems our sincere provision of information to support safer action has continuously led our state legislative leadership to run-around democracy and transparency, choosing to draft and pass opposition legislation in spartan, secretive conference committees.

Our legislature works in a top-down, last-minute secretive fashion, akin to queening our house speaker and senate president. Despite posturing with nicely sponsored bills, 85% of house lawmakers barely seem to have purpose, voting 100 percent of the time with the house speaker.

As stated previously, current law requires constant wireless transmissions from digital meters for a centralized repository of real-time or nearly real-time customer data for all utilities and potentially for third parties (e.g. apps).

Despite pleas by advocates to correct harm from the ‘smart’ grid, the 139-page 2023-2024 ‘An Act Promoting a Clean Energy Grid, Advancing Equity and Protecting Ratepayers’ was fast-tracked shortly before the voting deadline, and passed with overwhelming support by lawmakers (house: 125-17; senate: 38-2) who barely glimpsed the final bill. Of course it was signed by Governor Healey.

Who was involved in these conference committees? Senator Michael J. Barret prepared initial bills for passage (S.2838, 2531, 2829), and these were heavily edited in a house conference committee including representatives Jeffrey Roy, Richard Haggerty, and Brad Jones, then sent to a house-senate conference committee that included senators Michael J. Barrett, Sal N. DiDomenico, Bruce E. Tarr, as well as representatives Jeffrey N. Roy, Tackey Chan, and Bradley H. Jones, Jr.

Why Politicians Advance a Digital Grid

Why is there any support for a smart grid at all, given previously mentioned concerns?

Money: Profits can be earned, aside from data collection, from numerous smart meter patents and as smart meters set variable rates digitally. Some of the digital algorithms and pricing schemes have been noted to primarily benefit industry at ratepayer expense.

Data & Power: Data is power, and can be sold, and mined and utilized by bad actors. The ability to remotely disconnect utilities is another sort of power.

Special Cases: Lastly, some issues exist with the modern grid that a smart meter can help to manage. For example, when individuals add household solar arrays which return power ‘backwards’ to the electrical grid, then too much energy can overload local transformers. Similarly, EV chargers can use far too much energy. In these cases, a smart meter can help the utility balance local power.

However, homes without such exceptional conditions shouldn’t need a smart meter, and smart meters should obviously be designed more carefully and with greater respect for ratepayers than currently is the case.

The idea that utilities suddenly need the smart grid to identify outages probably deserves some skepticism. At minimum, municipal utilities should identify outages easily.

External Websites on Smart Grid Issues:

SmartMeterHarm dot org (reports);
StopSmartMeters dot org;
StopSmartMetersBC dot com (tabs on many issues);
MichiganStopSmartMeters dot com (legal and other points);
ElectronicSilentSpring dot com (focus on individual protection)
MaineCoalitiontoStopSmartMeters dot org