To the editor:

Roughly 10 days ago, we found out that Lawrence will become the first city in Kansas to enjoy the benefits of “smart meter” technology by 2011. Amazingly, this announcement seemed to go unnoticed across the city. We are completely unaware a baseball bat is about to smack us in the face.

Since the announcement, I’ve tried to find documentation of the meter’s success in decreasing usage, lowering bills and saving customers money, proof they have lived up to the hype. I can’t. Smart meters have been installed on hundreds of thousands of homes from the East Coast, across Texas and into California. Yet, for some reason, I can’t find utilities standing up to say “it’s working!” or examples of customers smiling when the bills arrive. What I do find is a lot of controversy, lawsuits and bills increasing 100 percent to 300 percent.

Early adopters to this technology, companies like Oncor and PG&E, are now finding themselves hiring outside auditors to perform accuracy checks and lawyers to defend against fraud accusations.

If anyone has proof or examples of the benefits touted, please let me know. If not, then we better wake up, Lawrence. We’re about to become the latest in a long line of cities to find out “smart” doesn’t mean what it once did.

Journal-World, if I may speak for the community, please do your part to help educate us on what’s coming.