The smart meter roll-out can’t just be an £11 billion calamity

Unfortunately, I think it is too late and the damage has already been done. The major problem is that there is no global standard for installations – which should have been clearly specified before the rollout began.

The sort of problem consumers will face (which is typical of the problem faced by people I’ve spoken to) is as follows:

– You sign up with Supplier A. They fit a smart meter in your home.
– After some time, Supplier A increases your tariff. You decide to shop around to look at what other suppliers have to offer. You decide to go with Supplier B, who are considerably cheaper.
– Supplier B says they are happy to take your supply on, however, they can’t supply the type of meter that has been installed. They offer to remove your smart meter and replace it with a ‘dumb’ meter (at a cost, of course).
– Not wanting to pay the extra charge and wondering why Supplier B wants to fit a dumb meter, you shop around some more. Supplier C says the same thing as Supplier B. Supplier D can supply the meter, but is only marginally cheaper than Supplier A, making it not worth the hassle of switching.

It just leaves people more disillusioned than they were before with the energy industry as a whole. Is safety an issue? Possibly. What about security? Potentially. But the bigger picture is much more to do with the lack of interoperability from supplier to supplier. It’s so poorly thought out. The problem is we are already in the midst of the rollout and what can we do? It’s too late to enforce a uniform standard.

Whilst I’m here, it is worth noting the quote attributed to Charles Hendry in this article – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/financialservices/utilities/Business-energy/9053100/Smart-meters-for-energy-to-be-voluntary.html – the quote being “We believe people will benefit from having smart meters. But we will not make them obligatory.”

So, is it full steam ahead or not?

@TheEnergyBadger

Which? itself seems to be confused itself. The latest Which? journal has a photograph of a primitive energy monitor in an article on smart meters.
What we need is a full specification of the meters that are being labelled Smart, and a definitive list of features that are needed to give the consumer maximum benefit.

Real smart meters reduce fuel costs by helping make maximum use of renewable energy and reducing the need for backup fossil fuel generation when renewable output is low.

There is no point in having a smart meter if its smart facilities are not used. Just to allow the consumer to monitor their own consumption and to transmit “one cumulative reading per month” does not require anything as sophisticated as a genuine smart meter.

A smart meter offers the consumer the option of tariffs which give cheap electricity when plenty of renewable energy is available and ideally offer a switching signal which the consumer can use to automatically switch certain circuits on and off according to the price on offer.

“It isn’t obligatory to have a smart meter” well, at the moment at least. Which is good news because I see very little if any benefit to the consumer, that is certainly not £11 billion worth anyway. and I don’t want one. However by electing not to have a so called “smart meter” I doubt I will escape paying a proportion of the installation cost.
I think smart meters are a waste of money on an almost biblical scale. If that £11 billion that consumers will be charged was spent subsidising improvements like insulation the savings in energy consumed would be far far greater.
But as it is this very mis-guided initiative has taken on such momentum it’s going to happen, otherwise someone in Government gets egg on their face and they won’t allow that.
Even the “which” position greatly disappoints me. “Which” talks about controlling roll out costs and ensuring the operation is correctly co-ordinated with no additional sales pressure etc. etc.
But there is no “Which” comment about whether going ahead is really a good idea? Whether it’s an option to simply cancel the whole thing? Whether better enegy efficiency could be achieved by using such a vast sum of money to subsidise home energy efficiency improvements?

I have worked for 7 years for a company who installs ‘dumb’ meters and ‘Smart’ meters for all the big utility companies all over the country, and one problem is, the govt not yet giving their ruling on what should be the ‘standard’ of a Smart meter.

Currently, most utility companies are using different meters to each other, and some have hidden costs which are not always apparent when you sign up. Having had your meter installed, If you choose to switch from one Smart supplier to another, you would most likely have to have your meter removed and replaced with a new one; which would be compatible with your new supplier’s computer system. Plus there may a cost involved if you decide to switch within 12 months.

Some meter’s in-house display units, show you your gas and electric usage, and carbon emission; others only show you electric usage, and for the rest of your usage, you have to log onto your account to view this. (you may have to your use electricity to do this obviously)

It is not the law, yet, to have a Smart meter installed…so my advise is, currently to sit tight and wait for the govt to decide what they deem as a ‘required standard’; and when they do, unfortunately, I can envisage most of what is already out there, having to be changed.

In the meantime, be energy efficient….be aware of your usage. Don’t leave TV, comps on standby, at av. £30 per year, per item; use energy efficient bulbs. Let’s do what we should have always been doing anyway.

Just fyi, there’s a DECC webchat about smart meters happening on Monday afternoon – you can submit questions to their team from today. http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/sm_webchat/sm_webchat.aspx

Thought I’d add the link in case you want to put any of your questions about smart metering directly to the team.