Smart meter - change of provider

lazyade

Up until earlier this year I was with British Gas for the provision of my gas and electric. They kindly installed a smart meter which was great; however now I've switched to SSE it doesn't seem they are hooked up to read my smart meter (I have to submit manual readings).

Surely the energy companies have agreed a standard on smart meters and can therefore use each others - please tell me I'm not wrong!!!

matelodave

You are wrong - as normal, everyone is procrastinating about what, when and how and there is no requirement at present for the different suppliers to have compatible meters or compatible systems so it really doesn't matter which supplier installs a smart meter as it will only work with their system.

If you choose to swap suppliers then they'll either require the meter to work as a dumb meter (although I think your in-home monitor will still work) and require to be manually read or they'll come along and install their own smart meter.

We all might think it's daft but minds immeasurably superior to ours have made their plans and that's how it will be until sense prevails (probably not in my lifetime)

lazyade

matelodave wrote: »

You are wrong - as normal, everyone is procrastinating about what, when and how and there is no requirement at present for the different suppliers to have compatible meters or compatible systems so it really doesn't matter which supplier installs a smart meter as it will only work with their system.

If you choose to swap suppliers then they'll either require the meter to work as a dumb meter (although I think your in-home monitor will still work) and require to be manually read or they'll come along and install their own smart meter.

We all might think it's daft but minds immeasurably superior to ours have made their plans and that's how it will be until sense prevails (probably not in my lifetime)

So I think you're saying that my current ex-British Gas smart meter will work as a dumb meter with the new provider (ie. I take readings and submit them as required) - but, there is no way for the new provider to take advantage of the smart functionality and take the reads automatically.

If I've played this back correctly - what bunch of muppets allowed smart meters to be rolled out without a common standard for smart reading between providers - that is indefensible. I would say I'm flabbergasted, but the performance of the regulator over the past few years leads me to not being surprised.

What a mess (and waste of our money).

matelodave

Has it ever been different?

As far as I'm aware they are still arguing about the standards. One would hope (probably in vain) that when they start rolling them out in earnest that the software would allow them to be reprogrammed to allow any supplier to utilise the smart functionality.

Just look at what happens with most public financed computer systems - they generally cost vastly more than the original estimates, usually don't work properly and frequently get abandoned and no one seems to be accountable - why would smart metering be any different?
In fact it's likely to be worse because the government are involved as well as lots of different suppliers each with their own requirements and agendas

lazyade

matelodave - you are of course correct in your summary! I have written to my MP about this - at least I can tell myself I've done all I can do to flag the incompetence!

Bark01

The official Smart Meter roll out programme hasn't started yet. As pointed out above different meters and systems are being trialled and evidence collated.

If you get a Smart Meter at the moment you are basically a Beta tester for the full roll out.

Norman_Castle

What a mess (and waste of our money)

Yep. Thats a smartmeter.