Compulsory Smart Meters.

GingerBob_3

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

From the British Gas website:

"Will customers on smart meters be disconnected remotely?"

"No. With smart meters, energy suppliers have no more powers to disconnect than with a standard meter."

So the answer is no, but then it turns out in the very next sentence they were lying, and no in this case actually means yes:

"On those extremely rare occasions when this is necessary it will be possible to disconnect the meter remotely"

So yes they can remotely disconnect customers, and plan to.

But if asked they'll say they won't.

https://www.britishgas.co.uk/help-and-advice/Meters-meter-readings/Smart-Meters/whats-different-with-smart-meters/Will-customers-on-smart-meters-be-disconnected-remotely.html

British Gas are one of the worst offenders for trashing customers' ability to get credit by malicious reporting to the CRAs. So what makes anyone think they won't be similarly incompetent when they have access to a remote disconnection switch?

phillw

Hengus wrote: »

The rollout of smart meters will reduce the need for suppliers to visit consumer premises to read meters as the meters will be capable of sending consumption information wirelessly to suppliers.

Sure, they won't need to visit to read it. They will still want to make random visits to make sure the meter hasn't been bypassed. I don't believe the costs will reduce considerably, but if they do then it's good for us as they could reduce their prices.

There are competitive tariffs out there, GB energy going bust proves that some energy providers have even set charges below their own costs.

GingerBob wrote: »

British Gas are one of the worst offenders for trashing customers' ability to get credit by malicious reporting to the CRAs. So what makes anyone think they won't be similarly incompetent when they have access to a remote disconnection switch?

Because going on watchdog saying that your credit history was affected because you didn't pay your bill isn't going to get a sympathetic response.

Banks and energy providers computer systems are unreliable, cutting someone off because you dispute a bill or the direct debit fails is PR suicide.

Your credit history can be amended if it wasn't your fault, you can't bring back your elderly relatives from the dead. You also can't pay back the money you owe them if you're dead.

If you're short of money then I don't know what you're doing with british gas anyway.

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

How many times in the last 10 years have one of the big 6 been fined for cheating their customers or rigging the system and breaking the (lax) rules?

We live in a greed based economy where large companies can behave in any which way they want, worst cast slap on the wrist, and a small fine.

It's usually that they take or hold on to money that they shouldn't have, which can be returned. Any material loss is going to small enough that a good will payment covers it. If they start switching electricity and gas off then the loss could be death and compensating for that is going to be a lot higher and the PR backlash would be huge.

System

Even some of our energy suppliers are becoming concerned about the smart meter rollout programme:

https://octopus.energy/blog/smart-meters-truth-behind-energys-next-big-thing/

teddysmum

Possible situation :


Vulnerable person (old,sick, disabled) living with no near neighbours.


Someone in an office accidentally switches off the electricity.


Person has no light, cooking, heat and cannot phone to report, as they have a cordless phone, which needs power and can't find the mobile (if they have one) because it's dark.


Not very likely, but possible and could end in tragedy.

System

teddysmum wrote: »

Possible situation :


Vulnerable person (old,sick, disabled) living with no near neighbours.


Someone in an office accidentally switches off the electricity.


Person has no light, cooking, heat and cannot phone to report, as they have a cordless phone, which needs power and can't find the mobile (if they have one) because it's dark.


Not very likely, but possible and could end in tragedy.

Personally, I think that they are going to be very, very careful. That said, one has to ask why they bothered building in this level of complexity and risk into the design of our smart meters? The Government's recently released Cost/Benefit Analysis states:

Quote. The meter functionality that is specified in SMETS will enable the remote enablement or disablement of the electricity and/or gas supply. The direct benefits associated with these capabilities are the avoided site visits in instances where an authorised supplier operator is despatched to a customer’s premise to disconnect supply. The number of such instances is limited – Ofgem data show the number of disconnections for debt purposes averaged 670 per year between 2011 and 2014 for gas and electricity combined - but are potentially costly as they might involve multiple personnel. A disconnection is most likely to occur where an indebted customer cannot be provided with a pre-payment meter, Unquote

System

House_Martin wrote: »

.The hundreds of thousands however who steal energy can be cut off remotely and there is nt a person on here who would not like to see that happen.Cannabis farms shut down at the click of a mouse.

We would all like to see a reduction in energy theft; but It would seem that the Government is being realistic about what can be achieved with smart meters.

Quote: In our central scenario we continue to assume that the roll-out of smart meters will reduce theft by 10%, which is also conservative given estimates that smart meters could reduce theft by 20-33% in previous consultation responses. We continue to assume that the amount of theft is likely to decrease as suppliers will have access to more accurate and frequent data and will detect theft more quickly; however we also recognise that new methods of theft will arise. Following standard Government practice, we value theft reductions for domestic customers at the resource rather than the retail value of energy, resulting in benefits of £0.29 per meter per annum for electricity and £0.36 per meter per annum for gas.

Source: Smart Meter Roll-Out Cost Benefit Analysis dated August 2016
Department for Energy, Business and Industrial Strategy

System

Hengus wrote: »

I think that is the thrust of tonight's ITV programme. Suppliers will save £Ms in metering reading costs per year but there is no mechanism for this money to be paid back to customers. Ofgem just 'hopes' that more competition will see lower prices.

Do you have a problem with the fact that suppliers will run their businesses much more cheaply with smart meters ? Every other business in the world tries to do the same thing.
. I find it unbelievable that the word "accept " has to be used at all with the fitting of smart meters. The rest of Europe (Germans and Swedes excepted ) simply slammed then in with no choice given to the public, as it should be. This TV prog tonight has already laid down its agenda and got it wrong from the start with the phrase "supposed to save us money " They save the suppliers money, which we all must agree is a good thing.. Their lowered costs get passed on down the line to us .My smart meter has nt saved me one penny and I don`t think any smart meters save clued up people anything..plenty of dumbos out there tho who mess all their bills up, get in debt, dont pay it back and then we pick up the tab.

A._Badger

phillw wrote: »

It won't happen, you're just spreading fear.!They know that people will just go to the newspapers and sell their story and it would be!a PR disaster. The next step would be court and the energy companies wouldn't do very well there either.

You mean just like all the bad publicity accrued by companies like BT, NPower, Sky and British Gas has reformed the way they operate?

In the face of consumer experience in the UK, the faith shown in large companies, civil servants and politicians is little short of bewildering.

Smart meters are clearly a stepping stone to enable the power companies to introduce variable charging rates throughout the day. Everything else is just a smokescreen. to hide the real intention.

teddysmum

According to tonight's ITV news, the 'free' meters will cost several billion pounds , costing the average customer about £350 and the newscaster told the person being interviewed that they should not be implying that the meters are free, as bills are to rise to cover costs.


This gives a foretaste of tonight's programme on the topic.

facade

Apparently, the cost of these smart-meters is going to be met by the consumers.

I bet that took some investigative reporting. :rotfl:



Sometimes I wonder if I am the only sane one in the asylum