The Future - SMART Meter and Truly Variable Unit Prices

[Deleted User]

Of course the real benefits will be to the suppliers and producers with a lesser benefit to consumers..thats a given. But is that so bad ? efficient metering which leads to lower costs and hence lower prices..no messed up bills which lead to force fitted prepays which leads to standard ( expensive ) tariffs. Much less blatant thieving which is simply passed onto to us to pay for. The pro renter flitting from property to property will only be able to rack a few hundred quid of free energy up instead of the 3k they can manage now in a couple of years. The dedicated money savers will find a way round the increased rates from 5pm to 8 pm.
Who in their right mind would worry about the suppliers knowing that the house is empty or that a few more wi fi signals are floating around with all the others.. Ludicrous silly excuses for refusing prepays. If it was up to those sorts of people the farmers would still be using Shire horses to plough the fields..its 2015 for gods sake

GaryOctogen

facade wrote: »

Interesting, so if my meter goes quiet, EON know the power is out, and can mobilise a repair crew, so I don't have to phone the Distribution company.

anecdotally a lot of Distribution call outs are due to trips in the house. Distributors will have limited access to the meter, so the theory goes that if your power goes out and you call the Distributor then the call centre can access the meter, and if they can talk to it then the trouble is most likely the fuse box (so they point you to an electrician). If the meter is out then that points to a wider problem and they send an engineer - they are looking to cut the call out rate.

facade wrote: »

I still fail to see what the Big Benefits to me are, having read the itemised lists

It looks like we will need smart washers, driers freezers etc. that all come on whenever the unit rate drops, and switch off when it increases :mad:

the benefits are mostly exclusively to the Supplier and system. The only real benefits to you and me will be the end of estimated bills, and not having to answer the door once a quarter to the meter reader :rotfl:.

They also mention demand control, but again the idea is that it's a system benefit - imagine national grid being able to order all the electric cars charging in London to stop charging or even start discharging, or turning off all freezers in Yorkshire for 10-15 mins. Trouble is that there are few "interruptible" appliances in the home - basically the fridge/freezer. You need a whole new generation of dishwashers / washing machines / tumble dryers which can resume after an outage, and the current generation of meters don't have the tech to control them.

There could also be the option to have a variable DD and effectively be billed every month off the back of an actual reading. If you had that then you could have (potentially) much faster switching as you would have no debt or credit balance (a big chunk of the switching time is making sure the financial details are correct etc). Downside is that customers and Suppliers like the current flat DD payment structure (as it is a predictable income / payment)

GaryOctogen

sacsquacco wrote: »

Who in their right mind would worry about the suppliers knowing that the house is empty or that a few more wi fi signals are floating around with all the others.. Ludicrous silly excuses for refusing prepays.

there is also talk about Suppliers passing on the extra costs of keeping the traditional arrangements going to those customers who refuse a smart meter

GingerBob_3

GaryOctogen wrote: »

there is also talk about Suppliers passing on the extra costs of keeping the traditional arrangements going to those customers who refuse a smart meter

Originating from the smart meter lobby, no doubt. Good regulation would make such a tactic illegal.

[Deleted User]

GaryOctogen wrote: »

there is also talk about Suppliers passing on the extra costs of keeping the traditional arrangements going to those customers who refuse a smart meter

Its not talk..its sound business practice. If you knowingly refuse these meters and then make the suppliers incur extra costs keeping these ancient old things because of belligerence, then thats fair enough..about £60 a year metering costs would be billed to the occupiers
Bit of a red herring talking about variable pricing , that could only work with a 100% domestic coverage.. Its possible to get that..by 2030.. I remember when they upgraded all the old card electric meters to more modern key meters..it took about 8 years and they only flushed out all the people who resisted by withdrawing all the token cards from circulation.

GaryOctogen

sacsquacco wrote: »

Bit of a red herring talking about variable pricing , that could only work with a 100% domestic coverage..

All you need is a smart meter tariff and a dumb meter tariff, with the dumb meter tariff containing the extra charges

GingerBob_3

GaryOctogen wrote: »

All you need is a smart meter tariff and a dumb meter tariff, with the dumb meter tariff containing the extra charges

No point. According to the smart meter enthusiasts, by not having one you'll be paying more almost by definition.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Most of us already have most of the information a smart meter will give you anyway. I'll have a smart one tomorrow, in the same way I went to water metering it hold no fears at all. Army's to the left and opposing army's to the right arguing the politics of smart's. Get smart's rolled out, get fiddlers shut down, get the tens of thousands of 'won't pay' cut off the very second their account is red. As a long time E7 user I'm all for domestic TOU's and any variable pricing benefits that would be made available to me - along with secure energy storage that might open up - mind you both GingerBob and myself will be long gone before domestic TOU's happen.

GingerBob_3

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

Most of us already have most of the information a smart meter will give you anyway. I'll have a smart one tomorrow, in the same way I went to water metering it hold no fears at all. Army's to the left and opposing army's to the right arguing the politics of smart's. Get smart's rolled out, get fiddlers shut down, get the tens of thousands of 'won't pay' cut off the very second their account is red. As a long time E7 user I'm all for domestic TOU's and any variable pricing benefits that would be made available to me - along with secure energy storage that might open up - mind you both GingerBob and myself will be long gone before domestic TOU's happen.

Speak for yourself - I'm only 16. :beer:

Cardew

GingerBob wrote: »

Speak for yourself - I'm only 16. :beer:

Then the PM's £300 million funding announced today might help you!