Smart Meters.

Whether the 'tinfoil hat brigade' are right or wrong, at the moment it is a free country and we are all allowed to make decisions for ourselves based on our own ideas, received information or even plain old gut feelings. I know that, when a commercial business is eager to get me to do something 'for my own good' then my bullshit detector goes off. If there is one thing you can guarantee it is that business NEVER does things for the good of the customer unless it also greatly benefits them. When the designers of the devices come forward and prove to me that there is no way that having such a meter cedes more control over supply to them I will then, maybe, allow one to be fitted to my house.

 

it’s a government led initiative rather than supplier led. And of course we are all paying for it in increased energy charges.


Background

Energy smart meters are advanced electricity and gas meters which can offer a range of intelligent functions. The Energy Act 2008 gave powers to begin a smart meter rollout. Since then, successive Governments and Ofgem (the energy regulator) have been working on a rollout programme (this only applies in Great Britain as Northern Ireland has a separate energy market).

The Government have committed to offer more than 50 million energy smart meters to homes and smaller non-domestic sites in Great Britain by the end of 2020. Energy suppliers have a legal requirement to take all reasonable steps to install smart meters for their customers by this deadline. Due to rollout delays, the Government has proposed introducing a new obligation to 2024 that would apply after the current duty ends.

The Roll Out

The smart meter rollout began in 2011. Until recently the only type of smart meter being rolled out was the SMETS1 specification, which has caused some interoperability problems when consumers switch supplier. Suppliers should now be installing the more advanced SMETS2 meters, though there have been delays to the SMETS1-2 switch, and there are reports that ongoing problems with the infrastructure mean that some SMETS1 are still being installed. The SMETS2 meters are using new infrastructure, provided by the Data Communications Company. Eventually, the Government want SMETS1 meters to also be using this infrastructure.

The latest Government data showed that by the end of June 2019, 14.9 million smart and advanced meters were operating across homes and businesses, leaving the vast majority still to install.

Benefits and concerns

The Government’s 2019 cost-benefit analysis estimates that by 2034, the rollout of smart meters will have delivered just under £6 billion of net benefits to consumers, energy suppliers and networks, made up of £19.5 billion of benefits offset by approximately £13.5 billion of costs.

Smart meters are intended to have benefits for consumers, suppliers and networks. For consumers, smart meters could provide more accurate bills, easier switching, clearer energy use through an in-home display, and the potential for reduced bills based on reduced consumption. For suppliers, smart meters could mean avoiding site visits (for example to check meters) and reduced customer service overheads due to more accurate billing. For networks, smart meters could facilitate a smarter grid, and the real-time data supplied by smart meters could make balancing the grid easier.

In addition to criticism for the repeated delays to the rollout, there are also customer concerns regarding energy smart meters including data protection and privacy, connectivity in areas with low or no mobile coverage, installation visits and doorstep selling, health concerns, disconnection of prepayment meters, and the ability to switch supplier and keep the ‘smart functionality’.

 

hmmmm...... Well I have to say that I trust the government to look after my interests about as much as I do energy suppliers and looking at that data it states that there is a £6bn net benefit from them but it doesn't say how much of that benefit is to the customer and how much to the energy suppliers. I think I can guess who benefits the most. I have survived this long without the 'smart functionality' so I will hold out until I am no longer given a choice.

 

I am wondering just how long it will be before they try and force a smart meter on you...i mean what sort of threat will they use to force people to have them installed fines etc....this i dont like one bit!

 

Free to customers nothing is free
Sounds like an almighty government feck up as usual thousands of gen 1 meters to be scraped wasting materials and damaging the planet with plastic waste

 

I think they will be more subtle, they will introduce lower tariffs that are only available to customers with Smart Metres.

 

They're not free to customers really, the cost will eventually be recovered from customers eventually whether you have one or not.

The only reason I got smart meters is I'm too lazy to go out to the garage to read them myself, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered...

 

In my case the energy company wrote a clause into the contract that I took out when I switched to them. Basically it said that I agreed to have one installed if I took the tariff on offer. They attempted to install a SMET1 meter which I refused, and only agreed for the installation to go ahead once thay had agreed that I would get a SMET2 one.

 

We had it fitted a few years back, saves giving the reading but anyone who through the long haired general was going to turn the heating down from looked at a meter needs to cut down on their drinking. The power lead on the meter was too short to get it to sit anywhere out of sight so been in a draw after the first few days.....

 

Wash your mouth out nurse get this man a sedative

 

So had my Smart Meter installed today. Didn't necessarily want one but just got fed up with the constant phone calls, emails, letters telling me my meter was sat in the warehouse ready to be fitted.
Think I might have upset the nice lady from the Indian call center though as I said I would have a date when she called back, but booked it on line before she called back, probably lost her some commission there, oops.

Still its in and fitted now and I am glued to the speedo display seeing what I can turn off ( .the heater in the garage put me in the amber but there is no way the bike is getting cold )

Hopefully this will pass after a few beers.

 

Try putting the kettle on to really get the speedo moving

 

Still I am getting in some practice for when we all have to ride electric motorcycles

 

Also the supply and demand will come into play will prices rise then....I wonder