Unthreaded
TinyCO2
There will be meters installed with disconnection relays - likely to that portion of users already on credit meters - it must be quite a small market for the actual utilities these days.
I've looked at the range of models being proffered for domestic installs and have not seen a single mention of routine remote isolation (maybe I didn't look hard enough...) The demand management looks intended to be handled by the currently fashionable mechanism of fines / punitive tariffs - not that the PR choir will go anywhere near that !
I simply don't know if OTA (over the air) software upgrades are mandated in any of the present units - it would only really be to update bugs or enhance the user interface - as I understand it the reporting stream is pretty much set. There is likely not much scope for worthwhile enhancement to the units.
All the real "smarts" are in the billing software - and that does not exactly fill this peasant with glee.
It's yet another government sponsored shitshow.
As an aside - I expect that naughty boys are working very hard on a virus for the hundreds of thousands (millions?) of internet connected Alexa style smart speakers that have been shipped - where the attack surface is much bigger and the possibilities for mischief dramatically greater than a tiny microprocessor in a beige plastic box in a cupboard.... I look forward to mischievous vocabularies and attitude appearing on kitchen tables around the place.
tomo
Feb 19, 2018 at 11:02 AM | TinyCO2
The ability to cut off some supplies, when there is insufficient power to supply, is known as Demand Management Capability, or some other set of politically correct buzzwords.
Paying a superior price for a Premium Supply Service, would allow improved supply continuity.
golf charlie
tomo, I imagine that over time the vulnerabilities of the meters will be increased as 'additional functionality' is installed. There will be a temptation to include remote shut off, to allow for supply shortage management (eg shut off ordinary households but keep on power for the vulnerable. It will then become popular with the suppliers so they don't have to enter homes of defaulters to shut off supply or severely limit it. There is also the concept that people will have off peak equipment that will only draw electricity when high demand is over (eg freezer, car charger). Will they include something to stop people using high energy equipment at peak or will it be voluntary? If hackers could only affect a portion of the network simultaneously, it could still fry a few parts of the system.
The rise of internet connected equipment, including the smart meter would most likely affect customers primarily (eg burglars working out when you're away) but if hackers could turn things on or off, they could affect demand. Energy suppliers need to consider the unintended effects of all these new gizmos with their own 'improvements'.
TinyCO2
Feb 19, 2018 at 1:47 AM | Registered Commenter tomo
Good post, thanks for this, hadn't see it.
lapogus
Feb 18, 2018 at 7:14 PM | Harry Passfield
Me too on your comment.
Uibhist a Tuath
Verhofstadt is an item - Italy is just one of the countries that can't break loose from the clutches this 'gang of stand over merchants'. And Verhofstadt has the gall to lecture - seems familiar though - been there before ?here
Kleinefeldmaus
tomo
Consider how gravity there can affect distant Australia. Die of embarrassment.
Feb 18, 2018 at 10:50 PM | Supertroll
In Climate Science, anything is possible. Australia must have special Upside-Down gravity, to make Mann's use of Upside-Down graphs more plausible for authors at Skeptical Science.
Meanwhile, more serious stuff from Down Under, about how Climate Scientists run from debate, and then claim victory.
http://joannenova.com.au/2018/02/the-illusion-of-debate-a-history-of-the-climate-issue-part-2-2009-2011/
golf charlie
Oh, and the “temperatures are all going up” myth is busted here.
(Stand by for ad homs about the author, and not one shred of argument against the data.)