Smart Meters

zeupater

Hengus wrote: »

Ofgem is in fact a non-Ministerial Government Department. In my view, it is probably the weakest of the OF regulators, and it either lacks the will or the legal tools to be an effective energy consumer champion ...

Hi


I totally agree with this assessment .... last time I looked they had going on 1000 employees which, considering the number of investigations, decisions, fines etc that are detailed on their website seems more than a little excessive ... it wouldn't be so bad if they were either effective or levied fines on the industry to cover the cost of regulation, but as it stands everyone at Ofgem should be really ashamed of their woefully inadequate performance ...


HTH
Z

RandomQ

Hengus wrote: »

Ofgem is in fact a non-Ministerial Government Department. In my view, it is probably the weakest of the OF regulators, and it either lacks the will or the legal tools to be an effective energy consumer champion. Having lived during the era of Nationalised Industries, all I will say is that people need to be careful what they wish for.

The UK smart meter programme will be used by future MBA students as an example of how not to manage a £12Bn project. Governments various have a locker full of failed Government IT projects so it was hardly surprising that they tried to pass the risk on to industry. Sadly, industry has missed every timepoint in the programme: DCC Live was about 2 years late.

Various industry commentators are on record as saying that the 2020 target is no longer achievable: they are waiting to see who blinks first. Government cannot afford another failure, and the suppliers are under the cosh not to default as the fines for doing so are considerable. We live in interesting times.

I think it is a long time since we had nationalised industries and we can't really compare it to now, it would be like comparing a naff bath or kitchen from the 70's or a car from the 70's. Generally I am not in favour of nationalisation but most of the OFxxx industries are rotten to the core and the CMA not fit for purpose either.

In fact none of the regulators are fit for purpose champions of the customer, note I say customer not consumer, a consumer is a like a cow producing milk, exploited from beginning to end.

When you look at the cronies on these OFxxx organisations they are mostly from the industry they supposed to be regulating and far too pally if you ask me. The rest are the useless academics and gig chasers.

A friend of mine is an aging Director, earns about £250k, his new girlfriend has been pushing him to get these non-exec Director gigs, it is money for nothing, a few nods and a vote from time to time. He expects to get more money from these gigs than his salary and will keep them topped up into retirement.

How many non-exec Directors to we see in these privatised industries who were "involved" in nationalisation or are "involved" in OFxxx and please do not say "relevant experience" I have been on boards where you have these people who drive things with an agenda, while the weak gig chasers just go along, they are worse than Euro MP's nipping over for lunch and expenses.

As far as the "how not to" well if you have any certification in project or programme management you will know that there is a business case provided at the beginning complete with the hoped for benefits.

Every project has review milestones all the way to completion, in these milestones they are supposed to check that the targets are being met, that the benefits are still going to be achieved and that there is not going to be a cost overrun or else it triggers a review for killing the project, no matter how much has been spent (sunken cost principle).

This project is supposed to have 42 million smart meters installed by 2020, we have less than 10 million done and is it any surprise, the network is not ready, the meters are tat, you have gas meters not talking to the main smart meter, people saying wrong sort of frost and with a meter that protrudes by 6 inches from the, gas meter enclosure is it any wonder?

OFCOM is supposed to ensure competition but if you change supplier your so called smart meter reverts to a standard meter.

We have shameful practice by the energy companies booking appointments without consent and proceeding to installation without consent even though the customer is supposed to be there. It is all scare tactics but shameful.

I could go on but this whole thread is full of reasons.

WHY WOULD WE EVER TRUST THESE KNUTS?

OFGEM has already accepted FAILURE, note how their language has changed from the energy companies MUST install by 2020 (end of 2019) to taking blooody reasonable steps, what a load of TRIPE.

"Energy suppliers are required to take all reasonable steps to roll out smart meters to all their domestic and small business customers by the end of 2020."

This is the opening paragraph of their surrender letter.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/system/files/docs/2018/05/2018.05_open_letter_-_observations_from_rollout_plans.pdf

This project needs to be STOPPED NOW.

Energy companies must be immediately banned from installing 1 more naff Smets1 meters and none of those Indian crap meters mentioned in this thread.

As this has been a farce from the beginning in terms on consumer benefits (more could have been achieved by giving people a sub £10 energy monitor) and the REAL benefits are to the energy companies, they should be the ones paying for the project with no comeback on consumers.

As others have said I think the only way to make sure we do not get stitched up with hidden prices and fake energy increases is to do what the Theresa May promised, to cap these B&St@rd$ and get rid of the Standing Charge.

You see the disease here is the same as the BBC, the same as the HOC refit, the same as a plethora of projects funded with OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY.

Of course THIS is the Government that has created an overseen the project to move to universal credit, I do not know much about the programme except what I read; that is unfair and creates hardship. However, what I have seen is some of the IT screw ups, software developed then frozen and started again, so that there are 4 concurrent systems in use, with no so much as a messaging system, so staff have to enter say a change of address manually into the 4 systems and even this they find does not work.

So of course this being RIP OFF Britain, we will not complain, there will be the sycophants who love it, the nerds that want to analyse all that data but we are all plain dumb consumers in their eyes who get shafted again and again and again.

I wish we had a PM who had the courage of her convictions, who did what she said she was going to do and had the strength to kick these turkeys to the curb,

If I supported Corbyn I could give him 5 things to promise and it would almost guarantee him winning the next election, not so much winning as it being given away and probably sooner than expected.

One of them would be the immediate suspension of this programme, with no come back on consumers and a price fix rolling back price of Gas and Electricity.

RandomQ

zeupater wrote: »

Hi

I totally agree with this assessment .... last time I looked they had going on 1000 employees which, considering the number of investigations, decisions, fines etc that are detailed on their website seems more than a little excessive ... it wouldn't be so bad if they were either effective or levied fines on the industry to cover the cost of regulation, but as it stands everyone at Ofgem should be really ashamed of their woefully inadequate performance ...


HTH
Z

AGREED!

Sack the lot of them, start over with customer volunteers

More would get done

It would cost less

There would be better outcomes

The energy companies would be scared crapless

Shareholders would sell up

Energy companies bought back for a song and start over with better and tougher regulation

Uxb

RandomQ wrote: »

As others have said I think the only way to make sure we do not get stitched up with hidden prices and fake energy increases is to do what the Theresa May promised, to cap these B&St@rd$ and get rid of the Standing Charge.

Well....
the North Sea's energy output is declining at 6% each year.
We seem to want to build ever more houses to house ever more immigrants.
Meanwhile we have done sod all about upgrading our infrastructure and power stations - mainly because no one want to pay for it and all everyone wants is cheap prices now and sod the future.
The planning process over sizewell nuclear station took 10 years!
So in short that means in terms of energy prices - you ain't seen nothing as yet
They are going to keep on going up big time.

RandomQ

Eeek, I really dp not think we can afford any more!

Actually the reason we need to build more houses is to make property prices come down by satisfying demand.

This will give young people a chance to own property and reduce rents for those that rent.

Owning property is really important as it is a savings plan for the care home where you can be abused for £6k a month, by exploited immigrants!

I love immigrants, I think every home should have one!

No seriously, they are mostly really nice people if you get to know them, just like anyone else.

What we might have wanted was the ability to control immigration, just so we can build that infrastructure first.

Oh and if you have used one of those £5 car washes with a gang of Albanians you can't really complain, they are the ones being exploited.

Yet Gov have not grasped simple business concept, "you cannot manage what you do not track"

When I went to live in Germany I had to register within a tight timeframe.

In France they have a way to create bureaucracy to slow things to a pace they can cope with, you gave to do some centrally and some in the region you want to move to.

All of the things we blame the EU for are actually our own fault because it is how we interpret those rules, how OUR Judges interpret those laws.

When the BSE crisis hit France did not want to sell our brain disease infected meat, the Fridges actually said guaranteed no British beef.

It was 100% illegal but they found a way.

Bringing subject back to smart meters, Germany has managed to kick it down the road.

https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/launch-formal-coalition-talks-call-focus-efficiency/smart-meter-launch-date-uncertain-germany

They will no doubt look at the screw ups we make and learn from them.

They are looking at 2032, what is interesting is that they are using a threshold, doing the biggest users of power first, then lowering that threshold

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

" large consumers with average annual consumption in excess of 10,000 kWh will be required to install smart meters. This threshold will be lowered to 6,000 kWh in 2020, which applies to approximately 15% of electricity consumers. With over 50 million metering endpoints nationwide, this will result in the installation of around 7.5 million smart meters across Germany. The majority of German households will remain unaffected, given average consumption hovers around 3,500 kWh. The grace period between 2017 and 2020 will allow grid operators and third parties to learn from early adopters and mitigate any issues realised during the initial large consumer rollout."

Look at that average, according this this we should have started with Wales and then South East

https://www.statista.com/statistics/517845/average-electricity-consumption-uk/

Michaelw

RandomQ wrote: »

OFGEM is nothing more than a paid mouthpiece for the Energy companies,

Look at Hengus another previous comments about DCC in this thread.

This is going to be one of the biggest balls up programmes not just in money terms but in design and implementation.

Their obviously sensative to needs of business.Claims of a smart meter in every home by 2020 being exaggerated.Certainly here a change of supplier would mean a meter swap to standard prepayment meters.

Two years to go: UK one-fifth of the way to completing smart meter rollout

https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/3029223/uk-one-fifth-of-the-way-to-completing-smart-meter-rollout-with-two-years-to-go

brewerdave

Michaelw wrote: »

Their obviously sensative to needs of business.Claims of a smart meter in every home by 2020 being exaggerated.Certainly here a change of supplier would mean a meter swap to standard prepayment meters.

Two years to go: UK one-fifth of the way to completing smart meter rollout

https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/3029223/uk-one-fifth-of-the-way-to-completing-smart-meter-rollout-with-two-years-to-go

I suspect that 20% "switched to smart" claim is over exaggerated as well; various householders have posted of smart meters being swapped on change of supplier and there will no doubt be a significant number of installation failures -the industry will be counting all of these in the 20%!!

System

Read the first sentence and you can see why suppliers are continually bombarding consumers with smart meter information.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/system/files/docs/2018/05/2018.05_open_letter_-_observations_from_rollout_plans.pdf

Michaelw

The truth about smart meters - and whether you can actually refuse to have one

The Government wants energy suppliers to install smart meters in every home in England, Wales and Scotland - but the reality is you CAN reject it

https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/truth-smart-meters-whether-you-12634197

I found no savings instead there appears to be increases in costs.

zeupater

Hengus wrote: »

Read the first sentence and you can see why suppliers are continually bombarding consumers with smart meter information.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/system/files/docs/2018/05/2018.05_open_letter_-_observations_from_rollout_plans.pdf

Hi

Looks like a little anxiety is setting in within Ofgem so they're instructing the industry to twist consumer arms as much as they can whilst remaining within the confines of both the law & license agreements so that the instruction doesn't harm Ofgem's reputation ...

I find it a little a little odd really, the regulator concerned with protecting consumers is pushing the industry to 'coerce' those consumers but to be careful to use coercive methods that don't look to be too naughty ....

'Don't panic Mr Mainwaring' ... there's plenty of other peoples' money they can spend yet to save their jobs ...

HTH
Z