EDF just emailed to confirm appointment to fit smart meter but I never made it

littlerock

EDF just emailed me to confirm an appointment to fit smart meter in two days time but I never made any appointment. Electric meter is in cellar with no phone signal so I already told them I do not want a smart meter at this stage as it will not work. Is it compulsory to have one yet?

Neil_Jones

No, it is not compulsory, never mind what EDF tell you.

Phone them up and tell them to get lost. Politely of course.
If somebody does turn up then assuming you can't get to the cellar without going through the house, then just either refuse entry or ask the engineer to leave. You aren't the first and you won't be the last.

System

Suppliers are sitting between a 'rock and a hard' place. The Government and Ofgem are breathing down their necks to get the smart meter rollout programme back on track. You do not have a legal right to refuse a meter replacement if the meter has reached its end-of-life and, in such a situation, suppliers can fit smart meters. If you refuse to have a fully enabled smart meter, then the supplier will just fit a smart meter and leave the comms module disabled. If, as is more likely, this is just a clever ploy to make people think that they do not have a choice - and your meter is not end of life - then just e-mail EDF and say no.

The next generation of smart meters will not depend on you having a mobile signal as they create a wifi mesh - called a Wide Area Network - which passes information across the network until a meter is found that has a mobile connection to The Data Communications Company.

littlerock

I think that your second point is correct. They are claiming meters have to be replaced to get round the lack of take up. The email they sent me was from "no-reply@edfenergy.co.uk". It said

"This is a reminder about our appointment on 20 October 2017 between 12pm - 4pm. On the day, EDF Energy will visit your property to work on your electricity smart meter.

If you have any questions, please call us on 0800 015 8787. We're open Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm and Saturday 8.30am to 2pm. "

So I rang up and pointed out I did not have an appointment or a smart meter and at present one will not work in my house because there is no signal in the cellar. The CSA immediately repeated we are confirming our appointment. I said I had never been asked about any appointment or confirmed it but she just repeated that they had made an appointment, unilaterally it seems.

Then I said that a smart meter would not work in my house because there was no signal in my cellar and they already knew that. She then said my existing meter had reached the end of its useful life and had to be replaced by law. I said it was not convenient and I objected to appointments being made without any consultation. So she reluctantly agreed to cancel it and said I will have to reschedule.

I am not actually against having a smart meter but will the ones they are installing now, work with the new wifi mesh or will they need to be replaced first?

littlerock

Second question: I have different suppliers for gas and electricity (British Gas and EDF). Does that mean I will need two smart meters or will British Gas use EDF's meter?

SpotlandRules

In theory, BG would connect through EDF. Whether this works in practice, is another matter.

System

littlerock wrote: »

I think that your second point is correct. They are claiming meters have to be replaced to get round the lack of take up. The email they sent me was from "no-reply@edfenergy.co.uk". It said

"This is a reminder about our appointment on 20 October 2017 between 12pm - 4pm. On the day, EDF Energy will visit your property to work on your electricity smart meter.

If you have any questions, please call us on 0800 015 8787. We're open Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm and Saturday 8.30am to 2pm. "

So I rang up and pointed out I did not have an appointment or a smart meter and at present one will not work in my house because there is no signal in the cellar. The CSA immediately repeated we are confirming our appointment. I said I had never been asked about any appointment or confirmed it but she just repeated that they had made an appointment, unilaterally it seems.

Then I said that a smart meter would not work in my house because there was no signal in my cellar and they already knew that. She then said my existing meter had reached the end of its useful life and had to be replaced by law. I said it was not convenient and I objected to appointments being made without any consultation. So she reluctantly agreed to cancel it and said I will have to reschedule.

I am not actually against having a smart meter but will the ones they are installing now, work with the new wifi mesh or will they need to be replaced first?

If the supplier is claiming that it is an end of life exchange of meter then you do not have the legal right to refuse a meter replacement. If you do, they will just cut off your supply.

They will fit a smart meter because it makes sense to do so. If you are unhappy, then ask for the smart communications module to be left disabled. If there is no mobile signal, then it will be non smart come what may.

Suppliers have an obligation by 2020 to come up with a firmware fix to ensure that all smart meters can communicate with The Data Communications Company. The next generation of SMETS2 meters were due to be rolled out later this year but, if past performance is anything to go by, this roll out will be delayed whilst suppliers get rid of their old meter stocks.

brewerdave

Hengus wrote: »

If the supplier is claiming that it is an end of life exchange of meter then you do not have the legal right to refuse a meter replacement. If you do, they will just cut off your supply.

Suppliers have an obligation by 2020 to come up with a firmware fix

Hengus, om your first point -I had several letters from my previous supplier claiming "end of lfe" replacement by SMART - the leccy meter was barely one year old and the gas meter was ~ 10 years old. Nothing happened.
Second point - obligation on WHICH supplier ? The meter manufacturers, the original Utility co.who installed or the current Utility supplier assuming you have switched??
For some of the smaller Utility Companies who aren't currently installing SMART ,I suspect it will be more cost effective to hold off as long as possible then replace all the meters,rather than upgrade "old" phase 1 SMARTS installed by BG/EDF etc:)

System

brewerdave wrote: »

Hengus, om your first point -I had several letters from my previous supplier claiming "end of lfe" replacement by SMART - the leccy meter was barely one year old and the gas meter was ~ 10 years old. Nothing happened.
Second point - obligation on WHICH supplier ? The meter manufacturers, the original Utility co.who installed or the current Utility supplier assuming you have switched??
For some of the smaller Utility Companies who aren't currently installing SMART ,I suspect it will be more cost effective to hold off as long as possible then replace all the meters,rather than upgrade "old" phase 1 SMARTS installed by BG/EDF etc:)

I don’t disagree which is why the SMETS1 consultancy paper talks about ‘orphaned meters’: that is, those that can’t or won’t be updated. It’s a mess: mainly because Government got it wrong, and didn’t think through all the possible unintended consequences. That said, it was never the intention to install over 10M foundation stage meters. SMETS2 and DCC got delayed so rather than call a ‘time out’, Ofgem allowed the rollout to continue. Government then stepped in last year and demanded that the suppliers and the DCC find a way of adopting SMETS1 meters. The original proposal was just to replace the few that had been deployed. I note that some suppliers are still pushing for a single agency to do the upgrades but it looks like DCC is favouring a solution where the original meter supplier carries out the work. The ‘carrot’ being that they can count an upgraded meter towards their rollout total.

littlerock

"Suppliers have an obligation by 2020 to come up with a firmware fix to ensure that all smart meters can communicate with The Data Communications Company."

This is all very well but there seem to be several non compatible brands of smart meter out there. Govt/Offgem can issue all the "obligations" they like but if they won't interact issuing obligations won't make it so.

What is latest status on implementing this obligation on SMETS1, does anyone know?

System

littlerock wrote: »

What is latest status on implementing this obligation on SMETS1, does anyone know?

https://www.smartdcc.co.uk/about-dcc/future-service-development/enrolment-and-adoption/

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/system/files/docs/2017/06/2017.06_final_open_letter_-_smart_meter_rollout_progress_and_plans_.pdf

Edit:

If you decide to plough your way through the DCC document, you will see that they are hoping to achieve an Initial Operating Capability for SMETS 1 meters by 1 Oct 18 with a Full Operating Capability in 2019.. If past progress is anything to go by, this date will slip.