Going Well Then.....

Legacy_user

Don’t shoot the messenger.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/bills-and-utilities/gas-electric/smart-meter-roll-out-question-fraction-households-sign/

[Deleted User]

Nice article. Love this quote too:

British Gas said customers saved an average of £30 a year using smart meters.

Well I could save most British Gas customers a lot more than that, just by switching away from BG.
Simple really and no need to spend all that money on fitting a new meter (you might think it's free but the money comes from everyones bill as a surcharge over the next god knows how many years).
Also that £30 figure is 5 times bigger than the savings that the Parliamentary Committee have shown as the average that a consumer can save.

System

Interestingly, having said ‘nein’ to smart meters in 2013, Germany is now rolling out smart meters to consumers who use > 10000kwhs per year and extending the roll out to users in the 10000 to 6000kWhs per year category by 2020. The majority of electricity consumers (85%) who use <6000 kWhs per year will not get a smart meter. I cannot help but think that Germany’s ‘slowly slowly’ and targeted approach is more sensible than our plans which appear to be unachievable by 2020. Gaz and Leccy have a lot of work to do.

https://www.metering.com/magazine_articles/germany-moving-ahead-smart-meter-rollout-plans/

brewerdave

I was watching TV this morning.....and they are still pushing the "smart meter" message EVEN THO' at the same time there are myriad Govt. messages about switching suppliers - the end result is that the "typical" consumer who already has BG "Smart" meters will switch, not realise that his meters are now "dumb" so will revert back to estimated billing:eek:

trickytree1963

brewerdave wrote: »

I was watching TV this morning.....and they are still pushing the "smart meter" message EVEN THO' at the same time there are myriad Govt. messages about switching suppliers - the end result is that the "typical" consumer who already has BG "Smart" meters will switch, not realise that his meters are now "dumb" so will revert back to estimated billing:eek:

Why would they revert to estimated billing. The customer can still read the meter and submit them

Robisere

As I have said before, I have no intention of having a smart meter at my home. It is NOT compulsory. With all the media attention given to failures in the system, from Switches causing meters to be inoperative, down to actual fires and damage, why would anyone even consider it? The whole scheme has been badly organised and planned without real thought.

House_Martin

It will be made compulsory very soon.The Tory energy minister who gave Joe Public the right to refuse has made a big mistake and it has to end and end quickly.
Its pretty clear by these figures that the whole roll out will fail because some politician who has no idea how the energy market works gave the public the right to refuse one...just plain idiotic ! All the energy thieves for a start automatically refuse one of course, and that is hundreds of thousands throughout the UK.
Too many people are just idiots when it comes to energy billing and they have to be saved from their ignorance by having automated exact billing, just like most of the European countries have done apart from the Germans and of course the Swedes.
A great many people just end up in deep debt because they can t give a monkeys about reading meters, or will not allow access to check them, and just rely on some low direct debit they have engineered. These people end up having a prepayment meter fitted , mostly against their will which then requires a warrant and a locksmith to break in and install one.
Smart meters work fine and 4 million BG customers are happy about it.
We always have the usual pig headed crowd who want to remain in the last century and who automatically condemn then.They have to be forced into one or face disconnection ! That will make them change their minds pretty quick.

AndyPK

I guess some people don't want some inexperienced person changing the meter in a hurry, leaving the connections loose, and causing the house to burn down.

Did you see watchdogs last series.

House_Martin

AndyPK wrote: »

I guess some people don't want some inexperienced person changing the meter in a hurry, leaving the connections loose, and causing the house to burn down.

Did you see watchdogs last series.

Dont be overdramatic, the cause of the SMALL fire had not been fully established .Meter had been in the house over a year, maybe occupier had been fiddling with the meter,, like hundreds of thousands of occupiers do. who knows .
Utterly ridiculous coming out with rubbish like that..
Any new meter install, smart or regular can have a problem if the main tails are not tightened properly IF that was the cause of the small fire.
I have seen many meter fires over the years and every one of them was the result of theft of energy bypassing or attempting to bypass the meter

System

I sense that many of the major players in the game may be getting worried. A fine of 10% of Global turnover is something that Boards and CEOs lose sleep over:

https://www.ft.com/content/65ed1e3e-60d9-11e7-91a7-502f7ee26895

From the Daily Telegraph Jun 17:

In the meantime, energy companies could face fines from the industry regulator if they do not roll out enough devices to their customers.

This pressure has led to an explosion of first generation meters into homes which is far larger than expected. Many of these devices will need to be replaced at an estimated cost of £500m to be fully compliant with the new system.

One senior industry executive said the DCC “massively” underestimated the sheer complexity of creating a system designed to connect 45 million household energy systems. At the same time the growing threat of cyber attacks has meant greater expense to ensure the safety of the project.

Suppliers had begun warning energy customers that the cost of the roll-out is playing a part in raising the cost of electricity and could hit bills, even before the Government’s threat to intervene in the market.

giraffe69

I don't have anything against smart meters and will, in time, probably have one but why they are plugging them when they can't fit version 2 which doesn't revert to dumb if you change supplier I don't know. I'm not having one until they do.