TEPCO to Introduce Smart Meters to Households As Early As Fall of Next Year

As if irradiating the population with Fukushima-origin radionuclides is not enough, TEPCO says it will introduce smart meters to its household customers by the fall of 2013.

Privacy concern about smart meters? Nah. The country is set to introduce the numbering system for the citizens for more efficient tax collection and tracking, calling it "My Number" as if you were queuing to be served at a deli.

From Yomiuri Shinbun (2/26/2012):

東京電力が、節電の切り札の一つとして検討を進めている次世代電力計「スマートメーター」の導入計画案が分かった。

TEPCO plans to introduce "smart meters" as one of the best ways to conserve energy.

　来年秋にも一般家庭を中心に従来型メーターとの入れ替えを始める。電気料金にもはね返るメーターの製造コストを下げるため、メーカーの選定は東電の電力計で初の一般競争入札とし、今年１０月に実施する。計画は月内にも発表する。

The company will start swapping the current meters for the household customers with the smart meters starting the fall of 2013. The manufacturing cost of the smart meters will be reflected in the increase of utility bills, so TEPCO plans to solicit open competitive bids from manufacturers for the first time for the meters. The bidding will be conducted in October this year. The plan [for the smart meters] will be announced by the end of this month.

　スマートメーターは、消費者が電力使用量を同時進行で把握できるため省エネに効果的とされる。東電は福島第一原子力発電所の事故後の電力不足を踏まえ、スマートメーターの普及を急ぐことにした。昨年１２月にまとめた経営合理化の「アクションプラン（行動計画）」では、２０２２年度までに約２７００万件の全契約者にスマートメーターを導入する方針を掲げていた。

Smart meters are said to be effective in saving energy because the users can monitor the electricity consumption real-time. Due to the shortage of electricity after the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident, TEPCO has decided to speed up the plan for the smart meters. In the "Action Plan" for streamlining operations in December last year, TEPCO said smart meters would be installed for all 27 million customers by the end of the fiscal 2022.

Yomiuri would be the last to tell the readers that there has been no shortage of electricity after the nuclear accident, even though TEPCO and the national government introduced the rolling blackout scheme to teach people a lesson. The paper is not about to tell the readers how the smart meters are being resisted in many places in the world and why.

However, that kind of information probably doesn't matter for a nation that decided, soon after the Fukushima accident started, to go ahead with the electromagnetic monster aka "Linear Shinkansen" (JR-Maglev). Being zapped with radiation and radio frequency is clearly not enough. The project will require building a long tunnel right through the Japan's Median Tectonic Line under the Southern Japan Alps. They also want the Large Hadron Collider in Tohoku like the one CERN has. They also want to mine methane hydrate from the ocean floor.

It almost seems like a collective death wish to me, but someone should tell the Japanese "DO NOT DO IT" on the last one. The world does not need two environmental disasters from a same nation in short order.

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