Smart Grid
Protecting Vulnerable Co-op Members
Among the many potential uses for smart grid is one that doesn’t get a lot of attention, though members of a panel at GridWeek 2011 believe it should.
Protecting vulnerable people was the topic of a GridWeek session. (Photo By: ilbusca)
“Protecting Our Vulnerable Residents” was the topic of a Sept. 12 forum. Stacia Harper, director of regulatory affairs and energy policy at Ohio Partners for Affordable Energy, which advocates affordable energy policies for moderate and low-income people, said a good place to start is by defining “vulnerable.”
“What does ‘vulnerable’ mean? Every single one of us in this room at some point in time may be vulnerable,” Harper said. Vulnerability, she noted, could result from a variety of factors, ranging from falling down a flight of stairs, to being physically or mentally disabled. Whatever the reason, Harper cautioned utilities not to just rely on information relayed from a smart meter.
“There is no human factor that is being brought to light when we are relying on real-time metering information to see if the appliances are on or if they’re off,” she said. “You actually might truly need that site visit.”
And Harper added that her group and others like it stand ready to help. “A utility should be able to reach out to organizations like ours, the community action agencies … that are already in communication with the people.”
Calvin Timmerman, assistant executive director of the Maryland Public Service Commission, believes that the smart grid education campaigns “will quite easily double the number of customers we then have registered as ‘vulnerable.’” And, he added, that’s just fine.
“Now you’ve got the opportunity to tell them about all sorts of things,” Timmerman said. “You’ve got the opportunity to tell their relatives that they’re out of power. You’ve got the opportunity to telephone their relatives and say that the refrigerator hasn’t opened for a day,” which could indicate the person is in trouble.
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