I’m sure that many people had the same initial reaction to the story in the Saturday edition of the Chronicle concerning the Glenoma couple and their lawsuit against the Lewis County Public Utility District (PUD).
The Budds claim that the new meters being installed are a part of a worldwide conspiracy and present a significant health hazard. Of course, the PUD says these meters have been planned for quite some time and are in use in many places.
I can’t speak to the health effects, but the “smart grid” does bring up a concern. Obviously, the PUD claims many benefits and even goes so far as to charge customers who refuse the new meters $25 per month to get their meters read manually.
What concerns me is the interconnection of these meters in the power grid, leaving open the possibility of the grid being hacked. Let’s face it, computers are rapidly becoming the pain of our existence. Artificial intelligence (AI) makes hacking any computer easier and easier, and AI is readily available to any 10-year-old or Chinese hacker. And our computers and networks are under constant attack by people with curiosity or just plain evil intent. It’s why we are inundated with weekly, and sometimes daily, updates to our computer systems and phones. Every hacking attempt shows a new vulnerability to hacking, which requires hours and hours, or days and days, of programming to plug the leak, just in time to find a new vulnerability.
Putting our power grid into a network makes it vulnerable, and our already fragile power grid just that much more fragile.
Finally, consider the broader effects of AI. All of these new electric vehicles are controlled by computers that are connected to their manufacturers because they need constant programming updates. How much of our infrastructure is tied into a “grid” that is completely vulnerable to AI hacking?
Bruce Peterson
Centralia
