MSE News: Smart meter upgrades in the pipeline

worried_jim

You’d be a mug to get any Smart meter.

System

Sosumi wrote: »

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.
...

A key attribute of any journalist is that he/she has to have an inquisitive mind. Whilst we can all applaud the start of the rollout of SMETS2 meters this surely has to be seen in the context on the ongoing consultation to allow suppliers to continue to install SMETS1 meters for much longer than was originally planned. This is due to go Parliament for a decision early next year. It follows that anyone reading the MSE article might conclude that if they agree to the installation of smart meter next year, it will probably be a new generation SMETS2 meter. My point is that it could well be a SMETS1 meter that is installed which might not be upgraded until mid 2019 at the earliest.

Good journalistic practice, in my humble opinion, would have been to put some balance into the article based on facts that are freely available on various Government and industry websites. All MSE has done is re-publish a British Gas press release. (As indeed did many other publications)

Finally, why is a decision needed to extend the rollout of SMETS1 meters? The answer is that SMETS2 meter testing and DCC (Data Communications Company) integration is taking much longer than first envisaged. Government does not want to call a temporary halt to the smart meter rollout programme so it is considering allowing suppliers to count SMETS1 meter deployments towards their SMETS2 meter deployment target for a few extra months.

I will though take note of your slightly tongue-in-cheek comments.

gardner1

Caddyman wrote: »

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!

If you really think they'll offer you a cheaper tariff you need to seek help......never going to happen
Plus given the fact that customers are no longer forced to have one makes them pretty pointless...... I'm more than capable of reading a meter,don't need a meter to tell me if I'm using to much energy( it's called turning lights off) and can change companies/tarrifs myself
If people are to lazy to change energy supplier or insurance they have more money than sense