"RayL12" wrote in message
news
On 09/06/2018 2:30 PM, alan_m wrote:
On 04/06/2018 22:14, Rod Speed wrote:
Smart meters cant turn your supply off.
A reply to the question from British Gas....
Quote:
No. With smart meters, energy suppliers have no more powers to
disconnect than with a standard meter. On those extremely rare occasions
when this is necessary it will be possible to disconnect the meter
remotely but for customers in payment difficulties, we will always look
for alternatives to disconnection.
|
Only regulation stops the supply being disconnected. However, from the
above it appears that the meter can be remotely controlled to cut off
the supply. If the regulations change to, say, cut off the supply during
certain periods of the day when demand exceeds supply this will be
possible with smart meters.
There are many cases of disconnections due to unresolved bills. There is
indeed a relay inside the meter.
Depends on the meter.
The problem is not at the single consumer end, which 'IS' hackable,
No reason why it can't be as secure as your mobile phone.
but, at the utilities end. Several energy companies have been hit by
'Dragonfly'. It has been said they operate like a 'state-
sponsored operation'. Many countries have been hacked by them and it is
thought that Dragonfly may well have huge area maps of distribution
networks and, 'key' data.
Thats not going to affect the end consumer disconnection wise.
Or, how about a ****ed off utilities worker who programs disconnections
for the future?
Trivially fixed by the operation connecting you again.
No worse than a blackout caused by a major storm etc.
Individuals and whole areas can be switched out.
Just as true of the stupid meters.
Because power stations have to be switched regulated to match demand, and,
because it takes days to 'reboot',
Only with black starts of generators.
Not with lots smart meters turned off.
In fact it would have to be lots of smart meters turned
on that would see the grid brought to its knees, turning
off lots of smart meters wouldnt do that.
software hackers only need to operate every few days to keep the system in
turmoil.
True of the remote control of the grid, not with smart meters.
To say it will never happen may be true; to say it cannot happen isn't.
It cant happen with smart meters.
As with banks, utility companies cant wait for a total disconnect between
company and user.
There can never be a total disconnect with either.
Then again, no human interaction also means no 'eyes' at the user end.
And yet that works fine with the mobile phone system.
At which point, I'm not so sure whether companies or users will win or
lose?
Both win because automation works much better than
having humans involved in trivia like meter reading.
We have seen that with the phone system. Hardly any phone calls
need a human to make the connection anymore, and that works fine.
Automatic billing and payment for all sorts of things like
phone bills, net services etc etc etc all work fine too. The
most you have to do now is check the statements to check
that nothing got ****ed up and get the ****ups fixed.
I just searched for 'Dragonfly' and found this, some interesting reading.
Particularly the UK response to major outages in other countries, abridged
dramatically by me, 'It can't happen to us cos we are much more
advanced'....
https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/201...cybersecurity/
And yet the banking system and mobile phone system works fine anyway.
I love technology and where it is tending but, it's so open to attack.
So is the more primitive systems it replaces.
The tech I aim to set myself up with now I am retired is:
Single high intensity LED emergency lighting.
Solar charger and car batteries.
I have gone much further and have done all my lighting now.
Yes its possible some hacker may work out how to turn
my lights on and off, but its hardly the end of civilisation
as we know it if they do and its very bloody unlikely that
anyone will bother, even those I have ****ed over on usenet.
Tho I must admit that if I could work out how to set fire
to some ****wit moderator's place remotely without it
being possible to pin that on me, after I have remotely
cancelled his house insurance months earlier, I would
very likely do that in the blink of an eye.
And, something everyone should have regardless, Fleece blankets with the
Thermal Carbon Tape/Ribbon. It gives heat up to 50C at 2p a day. No chance
of shorts or fires. Can be machine washed. Cheap at £15 and £23 for single
or double.
I use one of those on the armchair I spend most
of the time I am not in bed for and dont use
other heating anymore. Passive solar house tho.
I like the idea of still having a wired landline too.
I dont now with the new mobile plans that give
unlimited calls and texts to any landline and mobile
in the country and 1GB of data for just $10 a month.
Our VDSL2 service doesnt support POTS/PSTN
anymore, the phone service is VOIP over that.
Don't forget the dry beans.
Not going to need them.