Xcel Energy review: Demand letter for threatening ( 1 comment)

Xcel has a program to opt-out of smartmeters, but they are completely deceptive about what that actually means. This company and Colorado PUC have been purposely vague and deceptive about the program. A opt-out meter is supposed to be non-communicating, but that couldn't be further from the truth if you pull the user manual on your opt-out meter -- they are nothing more than a smartmeter shipped with many of the radios disabled in software and a port on the front to take a manual reading. The opt-out meters do talk to Xcel's network out of the box and you can tell because they need to have a accurate clock to perform time-of-use billing -- the LCD has and got an accurate clock from their network at install despite the claim they are 'non-communicating'. Secondly, there is nothing that prevents Xcel from enabling the radios on your opt-out meter via a remote software/firmware update, also in the manual for the so-called opt-out meter. Given the head of Colorado PUC is a former industry lawyer, Colorado PUC doesn't seem to interested in addressing what most would consider outright fraud -- there is no such thing as an opt-meter in this so called program. In fact, in Boulder county you have no option to go completely off grid or use another utility. Thanks to Polis they passed an egregious bill to make it so you have to be connected to a public utility or the county can declare your house uninhabitable due to having no grid tied electrical service. Only way around that would be to have electrical service and not use it at all because Xcel wants access to your off-grid power you generate, and then pull your power from your off-grid or generated power source while also having the ability to disable it. Vote Democrats out of office in Colorado. It's not the president or his administration, these are your state and local officials doing this to you and taking your rights away from you to power your home however you desire.