DTE is scamming all of us. I decided to take a closer look at my DTE bill today. I noticed that I have been using energy on my interruptible A/C service. I guess it has been so warm here my family has been turning on the A/C while I was away during the day. Everyone denies turning it on. So… a call to DTE was in order. BACK STORY: Back in November DTE installed a SMART meter on my A/C circuit. The reading according to my November bill was 13 KWH used. The beginning meter reading was 0 KWH and the ending was 13 KWH. December was from 13 KWH to 23 KWH. January was 23 KWH to 35 KWH and for February it was 35 KWH to the current reading of 48 KWH. Now 48 KWH may not seem much too some DTE executive but for me it averaged $2.00 per month for nothing. If you add up the tens of thousands of homes with SMART meters, DTE is racking in MILLIONS of DOLLARS of free money. You are being charged for NOT using your A/C. BACK TO THE PHONE CALL: I spoke to a DTE customer service person and got the answer. Follow me on this one, they told me that the wind is causing my fan to spin on my outdoor compressor which turns the motor. The SMART meter is sensing the motor turning and is sending a signal to the meter that energy is being used. The solution to this is to flip the breaker in the basement to completely disconnect the circuit. Those with A/C on their regular line will have to go outside and pull the circuit by the A/C unit if they don’t want this phantom energy usage. The DTE tech said the old dial meter were not sensitive enough to register the usage caused by the wind and that is why there were no previous charges in past winters. What a scam DTE is running.