Smart Grid Blowback: Reactions to Videos

A recent report from the Department of Energy states: “The ultimate success of the Smart Grid depends on the effectiveness of these devices in attracting and motivating large numbers of consumers.” (DOE_SmartGridExplained.PDF, p. 15)

 Therefore, it is important to assess what the likely predictors are for uptake and/or rejection of these technologies: What are people saying, thinking, and feeling in reaction to early reports on the future of the Smart Grid, Smart Panels, and of energy technologies in general? Is there excitement, confusion, or fear among different identifiable groups? Who are likely to be the early adopters vs. the initial resistors? This study has been undertaken to attempt to catalogue and categorize the existing reactions; in order to begin to determine how best to educate, attract, and motivate the mass of consumers required to make Smart Grid and related technologies a viable success.

 To begin developing an initial baseline reading of public sentiment toward and against Smart Grid, data has been mined from existent discussion and feedback forums. The method is akin to naturalistic observation, but in a virtual realm.  One such rich database where these reactions have been found is in reactions to YouTube videos featuring aspects of Smart Grid projects in development.

The following is a categorized list of sample quotations illustrating some of the main resistance themes.[1]

 Many of these videos come from corporations promoting features and benefits of coming technologies (e.g., General Electric, Siemens, Cisco). Much of the reaction against aspects of these fall into the following categories:

• Anti-Big Business as evil, oppressive, greedy or abusive force:
  • General Electric can go to hell! Stupid advertising! I can't believe how many people are taken in by anything all cute and gimmicky. PLEASE for your own enlightenment, google GE's criminal record over the years. They're among the worst polluters in the world, the biggest producers of toxic waste, huge shirkers of their responsibility for poisoning us and our planet! Death mongers! Don't be fooled by high tech optical illusions!
  • {G}eneral electric is famous for poisoning the air we breathe, the water we drink, and thousands of people, for bullying its workers and pressuring them with threats, for usury and bad banking and loan practices- oh, and for cutesy poo commercials. see wiki for a glimse at ge's criminal record
  • General Electric is a many armed, multinational corporation with a long history of exploitive and criminal practices. According to the Environmental Protection Agency it is the third largest producer of air pollution and toxic waste in the world. Don't be rooked by pretty advertising gimmicks. Read up, be informed, and boycott this evil corporation!
  • The oil companies are finally realizing that they need a new income stream. Nice of us to let them monopolize this too! Oh well, I'm used to being a slave anyway.
  • These people are crooks. Beware of big business!
  • They will tell you_ all the good about something new but will ALWAYS fail to tell you the bad and possible power they will gain over the people.
  • Pretty cool but this just another way for Cisco to try and_ make money and charge a fortune for it.

• Anti-ties between business and government:
  • GE bailout scam artists.  They are advertising ignorant commercials on youtube like this with YOUR tax dollars. GE BLOWS
  • Smart Grid ... Time Warner Cable's "All-In-One" package ... GM (Government Motors)... We have just about come Full Circle from a Free Constitutional Republic to a bullshit fed, USSA-Obama-Nazi Homeland that even the likes of which Hitler himself would outspank Pee Wee Herman over. The American People, Most of_ them anyway can't spell their own name without looking down at the nametags on the government approved shirts. Land of the free .....BULLSHIT.
  • These marketing people figure if they want people to do something stupid they can call it smart. This is Corporate_ Welfare for GE Google IBM & AT&T.
  • Ours are being installed now. It is all in place. Bailout for energy corps. Hidden tax ! Copenhagen Agenda!
  • Yes, this WOULD be good, if GE wasn't in the pocket of big government. Who's to say, Hey, you keep your temp in your house way too cool in the summer. We are going to bump your thermastat up from 76 to 83. "It's whats best for everyone!! Welcome Big Brother!

• Privacy concerns:
  • the_ power co. here, [D]ominion, had a big hooplah this summer about Charlottesville being the first city to get smartgrid, can you believe that they actually tout 'more privacy' as one of the benefits LMFAO
  • This tech allows the govt to see what kinds of electrical devices you have in your home and when and how much_ you use them. This is a a blatant slap in the face of privacy rights. Say NO.
    • I read that too, didn't know that part until this morning..over my dead body will_ this meter or device run on my home.I'll smash it to bits.
    • it's happening_ in florida too.
    • Thank you, was wondering where else..looks like the entire country will be stuck with with utility_ companies dictating to them how and when they should eat, sleep and live - unless they start saying NO..seems people rather wait for worst case scenario to do anything, doing something means being inconvenienced I guess

• Government intrusion:
  • The smart grid is another way the Government will REGULATE your life. It will know how much energy on what and when. If the right chip is placed in your appliance they can turn it off and retrieve information from your household.
  • This technology will be used against us. Gov. says "What you don't agree with us?" "Well then it's pretty cold outside, isn't" "I think will just_ turn your thermostat down so you can think more comfortably". Who gets the heat and who doesn't. The "Carbon tax" everything!
    • Ding ding ding, you are the_ only comment in the last 4 weeks that understands why they are trying to "sell" us on this smart grid crap. Makes me want to get off the grid!
  • They just want to sell the idea to the sheeple in case they hear anything about how government will use the smart grid to control them more, they can say "bahhhh" and write you off as a "conspiracy theorist" and break into this song in their head instead of thinking for_ themselves. Personally I think it will be a great way to dole out the carbon taxes, we think dealing with the gestapo known as the IRS is bad, wait till we have to pay taxes straight to the IMF.
  • I don't know --  will have to do some research may have to get something on doing my own portable solar generator and maybe use one of those solar showers used for camping I am so sick of this shit we are already struggling people are losing jobs, homes, ect. they are making life so damn hard for us_ right now I just want to put them all in Jail for being traitors.
  • Wait until the smart grid adjusts your air conditioner from a remote office.
  • it's not how you "can" conserve ... it's how you WILL conserve !
  • yea, kick-start and stimulate. because make-work jobs are real jobs, career jobs. and because we need to lower our carbon for climate "change". in response to "global warming" ... the part they don't tell you is that this smart grid will monitor everything you do inside your own home.
  • I'm with you! Smart grid means government will be able to control when and how much power you can use.
  • I am curious to see if this kind of technology will get to the point where convicts can only use so much electricity, and political rivals or other dissidents are punished by taking away their electricity; but then quickly blaming it on "just a mistake".
  • I understand that the government doesn't care when I plug in my toaster, but I still get the feeling it is just another way for them to make my choices for me. And I'm sorry but I refuse to give up any right, no matter how insignificant.
  • "modern software will allow utility companies to moniter and manage consumer energy use in real time." Hello socialism!
    • Welcome to the USSA- the United Socialist States of America. Don't get chairman Obama mad at you!
  • Hitler/Stallen/Napolean = Obama (all in one package)
  • This is not progress! This is being shoved down our throats! We don't want Cap and Trade! We don't want Carbon Taxes. Where is the common sense in the minds of any of these elected officials?

• Analogies and/or references to dystopian science fiction:
  • The Matrix is everywhere, it is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, or when go to church or when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. What? Sorry. I meant the smart grid.
  • This ad cost $3M just for placement. What's missing is the agenda behind it. Big Bro_ wants to track what you do in your daily life.
  • Notice how he slowly begins to call the smartgrid as if it were a proper noun by removing the article "the" from "the smartgrid?" ie "Smartgrid is good for jobs..."It reminds me HAL in n"2001: A Space Odyssey" BIG BROTHER nears.
  • Big Brother is going to tell you when you can use power and if you don't comply they can cut you off.

• Fear of cost increases: 
  • really? that is pathetic..if this is their idea for creating jobs then we are in some serious trouble..My husband has 2 businesses and one operates almost 24/7..this will kill him if he is required to use them because he would_ not be able to shut much of anything off for peak hours..he rents rehearsal spaces for musicians, they need to use electricity- no way around it
  • Savings? Since when have utility costs_ EVER gone down? No, this is nothing more than an excuse to give Nation money to a select few states...NO...this is bull crap
  • A solar panel would be nice, if they didn't charge anywhere from $1500 to $5000_ a piece for them!!!
  • Hmm sounds like a good idea, how does this work? when it comes to utility rates, if they raise the rates to force people to use less, does that_ mean clients will get back less for their solar or alternative power?
  • We must pay for the sun and the wind. We must pay for the air we breathe. me must pay! PAY! PAY!
  • Lol it will "Help you manage energy" It will keep you from running your wash machine because they will charge you 10x as much. What a total scam to take freedom and money from us.
  •  

Other comments indicate negative feelings about aspects of the technologies themselves:

• Renewable energy sources:
  • Windmills make too much noise and vibration. They make us sick.
  • Americans are sheep. Has anyone seen the windmills in Kansas? They are never spinning! Maybe 3 out of thousands were barely spinning, Millions for one of those things. I wonder who owns them?
  • interesting that they put bird song in the propaganda, since one wind farm can murder thousands of birds per year
  • Hydro used to look like the_ greenest of the green technologies, but you are so dam (sic) right. All they really need to do is create the necessary industrial base to mass manufacture solar electric systems and get them on as many homes as possible and that would......cut into the big boys profits.....never mind....stupid me.

One unanticipated finding was the discovery of user-generated resistance and protestations against Smart Grid and related technologies:

• Fart Grid Technologies – Currently 471 views, 60 comments (mostly supportive/encouraging and anti-smart grid)
• Smart Grid is Coming! by “Vicky Volt.” 3757 views, 14 comments (some refute)

These expound on the themes listed above.

 Another observation, videos that specifically mention global warming or climate change as a reason for research, development, and/or adoption of Smart Grid, renewable power sources, energy efficiency, etc. result in a large number of comments refuting global warming as a trick, conspiracy, or scam. Those that instead show other compelling reasons in favor of similar technological advances do not tend to produce comments about it, nor generate the spiral of negativity that often ensues in this forum (e.g., anti-government-funded scientists, anti Al Gore).

• more bullshit about global warming and how is looking at your electricity usage gonna get rid of_ cars
• The sky is falling, the sky is falling...  Mis-information woven all throughout. While there will always be some glimmer of truth in presentations like this, it is intended to induce mass hysteria and panic. I don't think the general public realizes how much more expensive it may be to get more deeply involved in greener technologies and distributed generation forms. Do the research...
• They will tell you all the supposed "good" to come from it like you just did but you fail to see the down side to this.  1. The global warming scam has been exposed for what it is. A SCAM  2. We're not destroying the earth just over exploiting it._ Look's to me that you wish to support a corporation that does most of the damage.  3. The smart grid will do nothing to "curb" peoples power consumption and will possibly make things more expensive. Try to debunk that.

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[1] In the interest of providing a true picture, I have not “cleaned up” or censored any of the harsher language contained in some. In rare instances, I have provided minimal editing, such as inserting spaces between words for clarity. I have also removed identifying information, such as usernames and links to personal websites.