smart meters

Any meter would tell them who is using a whole lot more electric, smart or not. What it can do is pin point if the problem is with your house or your neighborhood.

Maybe someone is worried that their ah inside "pot ted" plants won't have enough fake sunlight.

To remotely read your meter is a legitimate function which will save the power company money which of course they will pass on to consumers.

Any other function will increase complication and cost. That they are anxious to do this implies another way to make money from collected information. I don't think it will help in trimming trees, the function they seem least competent to do and which is the greatest threat to reliability.

That's it, I now have a mission in life. I'm going to turn on & off things at super odd times with no rhyme or reason & see if they come to change out my smart meter, people if we stick together we can do this. I'll go so far as to brush my teeth by hand (Fred, don't worry about that one) heck I may move back to the city where I can find a lot of feb or like minded females & fool then by showering together even if we don't have an electric hot water tank. Let the meter figure that one out if it's so smart. If someone would really be that interested in when & why I do the things I do that use electric just ask, it would save a lot of money & they could put back my dumb old meter.