Maryland Allows Interim Smart Meter Opt-Out While Review Pending

The Maryland PSC has ordered, on an interim basis, that, effective immediately:

1) Until such time as the Commission issues its final decision regarding whether to allow an opt-out for advanced metering installation, the utilities shall refrain from installing a smart meter in the home or business of any customer who notifies the utility in writing that they do not wish to have a smart meter installed, and

2) For those customers that inform their utility in writing that they have already received a smart meter but do not wish to have one, the utility shall refrain from activating those customers' smart meter transmitters until such time as the Commission issues its final decision on these issues.

The PSC stressed that it has not reached any decision as to whether to permit the customers of the utilities in these cases to "opt-out" of receiving a smart meter permanently or, if so, what the terms of any possible future opt-out might include. The interim order should not be read to suggest or foreshadow anything beyond the purely interim directive it contains, the PSC said.