![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/amandalee\/files\/2012\/11\/PowerTab-300x182.jpg\" "\\"PowerTab\\"")
<\/a>Out of the two company presentations, I was most interested in\u00a0Energy Aware<\/a>\u00a0because it was born from a class project.\u00a0Since the company works with electric utilities to sell their benchmark product, the PowerTab\u00a0<\/sup>, I can see Energy Aware expanding geographically quite successfully.<\/p>\nHowever, CEO Janice Cheam stated that Canada comes last on her list. As the company started out in Vancouver, I wondered why the product\u00a0couldn’t\u00a0be in BC homes yet.<\/p>\n
The Problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n What if\u00a0BC city councils\u00a0do successfully get BC Hydro to drop smart meters? Then the PowerTab may not be a viable product to BC energy users anymore.<\/p>\n Energy Aware can play an important role in reducing our electricity usage to allow for future consumption. Whether the PowerTab will be able to make its way into BC homes will depend on BC Hydro.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Out of the two company presentations, I was most interested in\u00a0Energy Aware\u00a0because it was born from a class project.\u00a0Since the company works with electric utilities to sell their benchmark product, the PowerTab\u00a0, I can see Energy Aware expanding geographically quite successfully. However, CEO Janice Cheam stated that Canada comes last on her list. As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14007,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/amandalee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/amandalee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/amandalee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/amandalee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14007"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/amandalee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/amandalee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/amandalee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions\/118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/amandalee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/amandalee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/amandalee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/amandalee\/files\/2012\/11\/Smart_Meter_Sign-2-241x300.jpg\" "\\"No")
In order for the PowerTab to work, it needs to communicate with wireless smart meters<\/a>\u00a0but\u00a0a number of BC municipalities, Vancouver included, have passed motions opposing installation of the new meters (see\u00a0article<\/a>). The article also states various reasons why people are against the meter, such as health risks and privacy issues. \u00a0Despite the public\u2019s concerns,\u00a0BC Hydro<\/a> still continues to install them, and maintains that smart meters are \u201csafe\u201d and \u201cgreen\u201d.\u00a0While it’s important for the province’s energy infrastructure to be upgraded, BC Hydro needs to go about doing that with transparency and accountability.<\/p>\n