Utility company's proposal to rat out hidden marijuana operations to police raises privacy concerns
Utility company's proposal to rat out hidden marijuana operations to police raises privacy concerns
A Maine utility wants to be an ally with law enforcement in the crackdown on illegal marijuana grow operations — if it can overcome privacy concerns.
Operators of illegal marijuana grow enterprises hidden inside rural homes in Maine don’t have to worry much about prying neighbors. But their staggering electric bills may give rise to a new snitch.
An electric utility made an unusual proposal to help law enforcement target these illicit operations, which are being investigated for ties to transnational crime. Critics, however, worry the move would violate customers’ privacy.
More than a dozen states that legalized marijuana have seen a spike in illegal marijuana grow operations that utilize massive amounts of electricity. And Maine’s Versant Power has been receiving subpoenas — sometimes for 50 locations at a time — from law enforcement, said Arrian Myrick-Stockdell, corporate counsel. It’d be far more efficient, he suggested to utility regulators, to flip the script and allow electric utilities to report their suspicions to law enforcement.
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And Maine’s Versant Power has been receiving subpoenas — sometimes for 50 locations at a time — from law enforcement, said Arrian Myrick-Stockdell, corporate counsel. It’d be far more efficient, he suggested to utility regulators, to flip the script and allow electric utilities to report their suspicions to law enforcement.
What motive would electricity companies have to report their customers?
The actual answer is that significant swings in usage create a problem for the utility. It makes capacity planning and budgeting very difficult, and it could even put a strain on the infrastructure, one that isn't accounted for in the $/kWh.
Like when a youth group shows up st a McDonald's at 10pm on a Thursday night, and 60 teens each order a box of chicken nuggets. You might think "Oh good, more sales," but now they are going to run out of nuggets over the weekend. Will they be back next week? Should the restaurant increase staff or stock up on nuggets? What if everyone wants a cheeseburger next week?
Residential energy consumption is predictable. Hidden grow houses are not.
Residential energy consumption is predictable. Hidden grow houses are not.
I would think grow ops would have very consistent predictable usage.
They use a significantly more electricity than the average residential home. However it's tiny amount compared to the average business/factory usage. It will hardly cause a blip on the network.
Say they use 20 watts of LED lights per sq ft per hour. With 2000sq ft of grow space over a 12 hour photoperiod that's 480KWh per day.
The average home uses around 30kwh with 50% of that for climate control. So an additional 15KWh per day for climate control.
Dedicated grow houses are looking at using around 500KWh per day. It will definitely stand out on the billing. They are using 16-17 times more energy than other homes.
Yes, they use a lot more but it should be quite predictable.
I still don’t see why the power company would want to report consistent predictably high consumers of their product.
Average community has x number of houses
Average house uses y number of power
Power lines buried and maintained by the utility are able to handle x * y power, grow houses fuck this up. An area being used for commercial / industrial use but zoned for residential is going to make it harder to plan that piece too.
I’m with you that the idea of ratting out someone who may pay you more money is a bad idea but also let me posit the idea to you that utilities are often required by law to give a certain amount of time of grace period on delinquent bills to residential customers and that could potentially be gamed by folks who are just growing something somewhere harvesting then moving the operation somewhere else.
It’s really quite easy to think of a myriad of reasons, none of them to me are a good reason to involve police though .. fucking narcs
Sweet juicy govt grants