MSE News: Smart meter upgrades in the pipeline

MSE_Luke

Anyone who has a smart meter will be able to upgrade it to ensure they can switch providers more easily, the Government has confirmed...

Read the full story:
'Smart meter upgrades in the pipeline'

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Mchambers

I won't bother getting a smart meter for as long as I can.

Caddyman

Mchambers wrote: »

I won't bother getting a smart meter for as long as I can.

Fair enough, and that is your absolute right. Unfortunately the flip side of that and which has been discussed elsewhere, might be that the energy companies won't offer you or even give you the option of moving onto their cheapest tariffs.

Now for some customers, that undoubtedly won't bother them one iota. The amount of people for instance who are just totally content with staying on their current providers most expensive tariff, is mind boggling. Even on the National news the other day, there were actually customers who stated they won't switch tariffs irrespective of whether they can save several hundred pounds, because simply, they cannot be bothered or it's too much hassle to sit down for 15 minutes and organise a switch themselves. I wish I was that rich lol!

badmemory

Anyone who has a smart meter will be able to upgrade it to ensure they can switch providers more easily, the Government has confirmed...

Recent government pronouncements seem to be good for a giggle. Timescale of said upgrade - well probably the length of life of the rubbish meters they are fitting so max 7 years. It makes it pretty obvious why they are not fitting decent meters like the old ones with a life of 25-30 years or even more. Why is it not possible to do a job once, get it right and we all move on, instead of the permanent feeling of getting ripped off by people who don't have a clue what they are doing.

Just to make it absolutely clear - I am not having a go at the people fitting the meters, they are just doing their jobs, or even the ones on the phone trying to get you to change. The ones I am having a go at are the ones who select which meters they use, the ones who decide to use totally useless technology which has been proved not to work (well apart from to their advantage) & leave US stuck with a system that doesn't work AND make us pay for it.

Frankly it is the last point that rankles most. I wouldn't chuck my money away on a failed/failing system so why should they be allowed to chuck MY money away like this.

System

If MSE had bothered to read the documents on the DCC website they might have noted that IOC is planned for November next year with FOC in July 2019.

robin58

Think MSE should get someone with a technical background.

It won't be a simple software upgrade to the pervious meter.

Not everything is like a simple laptop or mobile phone software upgrade.

Plus why did it take you so long to report this rollout. It was in most of the national papers last week.

Caddyman

I've just in the last hour been having a conversation with a friend of mine who is currently with one of the Big 6. My friend found themselves in fuel poverty debt about a year after moving into their house, a debt which they have now mostly repaid. Energy company sent an installation technician round to the house to install smart meters. He said that the job would be too complicated and told my friend to get a private engineer in to alter cabling, at considerable cost to my friend!

Someone tell me why energy companies are using people who clearly once they look at a job, can just tell a customer that they're not going to touch it? I've advised my friend to contact the energy provider and complain and get someone else out for a second opinion. This is what happens I guess when you don't used certified electricians or qualified gas safe engineers.

gadgetmind

Yes, article almost entirely wrong. Very few SMETS1 meters can be OTA upgraded to SMETS2 and what's happening is that the DCC now has a rolling programme to enroll populations of SMETS1 meters into the DCC system where possible. It won't always be possible and some SMETS1 meters really are a grim subset of what's really required.

Sosumi

Hengus wrote: »

If MSE had bothered to read the documents on the DCC website they might have noted that IOC is planned for November next year with FOC in July 2019.

Hengus,

Forgive me. I don't see where Derbyshire County Council's website and the International Olympic Committee come into it but are you suggesting that domestic energy is going to become Free Of Charge after July 2019?

For the benefit of those of us who do not share your passionate devotion of your entire life to obsessing over the small print in obscure documents relating to the regulation of the power supply industry in this country it would be helpful if you could be a little less prolific in your arcane alternative use of common acronyms.

It doesn't make you look clever, it makes you look (at best) out of touch with the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7ImvRAsdqs

Take no offence personally, for none is intended: your contribution to this site is immense and invaluable but what you write is becoming increasingly obscure (and not a little patronising) to the general public who look to this forum for advice and help.

The article about which you wax so scathingly may not have been perfect but at least it had the considerable merit of being comprehensible to them. Your castigation of it does not.

Try to take that on board constructively.
...

gadgetmind

Sosumi wrote: »

For the benefit of those of us who do not share your passionate devotion of your entire life to obsessing over the small print in obscure documents relating to the regulation of the power supply industry in this country

I have also read the various notes regards enrollment of SMETS1 meters, so it's not exactly a niche subject. And it's certainly something I would *definitely* do before writing some media blurb on the subject.

gadgetmind

IOC = Initial Operational Capability.
FOC = Full Operational Capability.

That whole industry is acronym city so it's worth skimming key docs at least for the glo
ssary.