A-Infos (en) France, OCL CA #344 - An update on Linky meters (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

A rumor has been circulating since the end of the summer, relayed by the 
media, according to which people who refuse Linky will have to pay a 
fine if they do not regularize their situation. What is it about? ---- A 
directive from the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) provides, as of 
March 2016, that households not equipped with a Linky meter could be 
subject to a simple billing - and not a fine - from mid-2025 to finance 
the visual reading of their consumption. Linky meters automatically send 
the index by electrical wires, but not the old meters.
A new disinformation that follows that of December 15, 2022, where the 
Agence France-Presse (AFP) published a dispatch titled "Electricity: 
meter readings payable from January 1 for certain customers not equipped 
with Linky", and the content of which was taken up by many media and 
websites. What AFP wrote was not formally false, but only the few 
scatterbrains who do not self-read their meter will have to pay 5 euros 
per month. Indeed, people who refuse Linky meters must communicate their 
consumption on the website of the electricity distributor Enedis, or by 
telephone, to escape at least until 2025 the billing agitated to 
intimidate them. This is indeed the billing of a service, and not a fine 
or a sanction against the anti-Linky. This billing project is even the 
admission that, contrary to what has been asserted since 2015, Linky is 
not mandatory, ordinary meters remain legal. As a reminder, the 
so-called "intelligent" Linky meter was supposed to allow users to save 
energy, therefore bills, to "control their consumption" and "become 
actors" in this consumption. Enedis "explains" that Linky allows you to 
consult your consumption curve on the Internet, but no one has ever made 
savings... by looking at a curve! On the contrary, countless residents 
have received brutal "catch-up bills" imposed on the installation of 
Linky, and have only been able to note that the bills and subscriptions 
were increasing. Some have been forced to take out a higher (and 
therefore more expensive) subscription, because their meters regularly 
tripped. Enedis is a subsidiary of EDF... which lives by selling as much 
electricity as possible. The Court of Auditors showed in its 2018 report 
that the Linky program will bring in a lot of money to the EDF/Enedis group.
On the other hand, through government decrees, it is on the contrary 
Enedis and the government who can now take control of the consumption of 
"Linkysés", in particular by cutting off their electricity remotely or 
by limiting their access to off-peak hours. Let us recall that a 
ministerial decree of September 22, 2022 authorizes Enedis to use Linky 
meters to prevent the heating of water in cumulus during off-peak hours 
at midday, without the agreement of those concerned.

Why refuse Linky meters?
For years, opponents of the Linky meter have been denouncing, in 
addition to the health risks (fires, waves), the technical 
inconveniences (continuous disconnections, burned-out devices, etc.) and 
the social consequences (cost of the program, increase in bills, 
destruction of 35 million electricity meters in perfect working order to 
replace them with expensive, fragile Linky meters with a very short 
lifespan), and the fact that "communicating" meters seriously endanger 
freedoms.
Linky meters are real "spies at home". The Nice-Matin daily newspaper of 
April 4, 2020 revealed that, during the lockdown, the mayor of Nice, Mr. 
Estrosi, had asked Enedis to check the occupancy of second homes through 
Linky meters, under the pretext of fighting the spread of the 
coronavirus. This was not possible this time, because the Linky program 
was not yet complete, but this option now exists. The computer 
specialist newspaper Canard PC warns us: "... the automatic feedback of 
information via Linky represents a formidable investigative tool for the 
police and gendarmerie services. No need to spend a fortune on personnel 
to monitor a suspect: not only can ERDF know when you were at home and 
when you were not, but it can also inform the police (to within ten 
minutes) as soon as you return home. This type of requisition normally 
requires the agreement of a judge, but here it is: since the very 
significant expansion of police powers following the state of emergency, 
we can fear that this tempting possibility will be exploited en masse, 
escaping all control. And neither ADEME, nor CNIL, nor ERDF will be able 
to oppose it...
Given the advanced dilapidation of EDF's nuclear fleet and the probable 
future electricity shortages, it seems inevitable that the government 
will use Linky meters to arbitrarily cut off or reduce consumers' access 
to electricity. Let us also note that the Linky system can make it 
possible, without admitting it of course, to restrict and sanction only 
certain categories of the population, for example suburbs or rural 
areas, while exempting upscale neighborhoods.

And if the bill finally arrives...
What we are being told now is that taking self-readings will soon no 
longer exempt us from paying this bill, which is increasing from 60 to 
64 euros, everything is increasing! The two directives of March 3, 2016, 
confirmed by that of March 17, 2022, explicitly announce that said 
billing corresponds to the financing of "reading on foot". But, before 
paying, can't those without Linky demand that human beings actually come 
to record consumption on ordinary meters? And that could be complicated! 
After having fired all the people who took the readings - in order to 
improve the profitability of Enedis, the only EDF subsidiary to make 
money -, if it wanted to apply this billing to the 4 million people 
without Linky, Enedis would have to rehire staff.
If this billing were to become a reality despite everything, its amount 
- 64 euros per year - remains much lower than the brutal increases in 
bills and subscriptions suffered by millions of households following the 
installation of Linky meters. Even by paying this billing, the vast 
majority of people without Linky will still largely benefit.

Odile, October 13, 2024
according to information from http://refus.linky.gazpar.free.fr

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4291
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