Smart meters could bust marijuana nurseries
A column about BGE's smart meters last month had a throwaway line about how digital meters could blow the whistle on your marijuana grow lights. I hadn't thought much about it, but that's what people seem to believe will happen on a large scale in British Columbia, which is to pot what Texas is to oil.
It's not that pot growers are using metered kilowatts to grow their weed. Rather, they're pirating electricity by tapping the lines and routing it, unmetered, to their nurseries. Apparently it's difficult for the utility to detect unless they see the illegal lines because they have so little information about what's going on on the grid. Smart meters measure in real time how much energy goes into a network and how much is used at the other end by paying customers. Any difference, apart from normal resistance and line loss, is theft.
Here's Fiona Taylor, British Columbia Hydro's smart-meter czar, talking to the Vancouver Sun:
“Today we are operating blind. This system will allow us to follow the flow of electricity from point to point. We will be able to see at a macro-level what is happening.“We’ll be able to see how much came into a line. We’ll know what the residential meter reads so we will be able to detect any anomalies, and special software will detect if there’s been a theft from a power pole,” she said.
Illegal electricity use by pot growers adds three percent to BC Hydro customers' bills, the story says. Shutting down the nurseries in barns and attics and basements is supposed to pay for the smart meters in less than 10 years. Here's another piece in the Vancouver paper quoting a knowledgeable source on how sophisticated growers are likely to get around smart meters.
Thanks to loyal reader Carol for the pointer.
Comments
There is a Holmes on Holmes episode that deals with this. A woman had rented out her house and when the people left due to a drug bust/arrest, they had totally trashed the place with this sort of activity. They also had bypassed the meter and the woman was facing being on the hook for it because she owned the property. She wasn't sure but she might have had to come up with 5 figures to cover it.
Posted by: Gina | October 11, 2010 8:54 AM
Yet another practical reason to end the absurdity of having made a natural state organic agricultural product illegal.
Enough already.
Posted by: MrRational | October 11, 2010 10:28 AM
Gina, Will you not MARRY me?...LOL...You are so Correct...
Posted by: Tom Manzitti | October 11, 2010 12:33 PM
Psst... Tom ...
The signature line is the one below the post
Posted by: Get a room | October 11, 2010 12:47 PM
What happens if the pot growers use low energy lights? Anyway, why would the electric company care how much electricty you use so long as you continue to pay the bill? Seems like these "follow the wire" type investigations would still need to be done manually unless there's a GPS locator on the electric wires. Maybe BGE would just give it to the police to look into. Just wondering how much this additional enforcement burden, detecting/tracing will end up costing us? who else did you think would pay for it?
Posted by: Big brother is watching | October 11, 2010 4:44 PM
What happens if the pot growers use low energy lights? Anyway, why would the electric company care how much electricty you use so long as you continue to pay the bill? Seems like these "follow the wire" type investigations would still need to be done manually unless there's a GPS locator on the electric wires. Maybe BGE would just give it to the police to look into. Just wondering how much this additional enforcement burden, detecting/tracing will end up costing us? who else did you think would pay for it?
Posted by: Big brother is watching | October 11, 2010 4:56 PM