Government + new technology = Farce

Norman_Castle

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44903471

"Customers have financed the smart meter programme by paying a levy on their energy bills, while suppliers have frequently blamed the levy for rising costs.
However, the report claimed most of the eventual savings would be made by energy firms, rather than consumers."

"The eventual cost of the programme could even outweigh the benefits"

Muppets.

brewerdave

The committee of MPs are just saying what most of us, on here ,have been saying for a couple of years. The "Government spokesman" still has his head firmly in the sand....still repeating the twaddle re adoption of SMETS 1 meters:mad:. .....and to add insult to injury ,I caught a new BEIS advert for Smart meters last night -still pushing the discredited 2% savings angle.:eek:

bri160356

brewerdave wrote: »

The committee of MPs are just saying what most of us, on here ,have been saying for a couple of years. The "Government spokesman" still has his head firmly in the sand....still repeating the twaddle re adoption of SMETS 1 meters:mad:. .....and to add insult to injury ,I caught a new BEIS advert for Smart meters last night -still pushing the discredited 2% savings angle.:eek:

Over £11Bn of our hard earned cash spent so far;…a tiny proportion of which paid for the installation of my ‘Smart meters’ a couple of years ago,…Hooray! :T

However, they are now ‘dumb meters’ and destined to stay that way for all eternity,…Boo!

The entire Smart Meter rollout programme has been a complete F*** Up thus far.

System

My guess is that this group of MPs has got some inside knowledge of what the NAO is about to say in its forthcoming Smart Meter report. I cannot see the NAO report stating that this is a well-managed value-for-money project. I got a very nice response from the NAO when I e-mailed them a month or so ago suggesting that all smart meter fines imposed by Ofgem needed to be added to the programme rollout cost. If there were no smart meters, then there would be no smart meter fines.

This link is worth a read:

https://www.civilservant.org.uk/speaking_truth-appraisal_optimism.html

D_M_E

There was a report on Radio 4's Moneybox this morning about this - expected savings to less than half those projected and it looks like the only benefit will be to the suppliers' profits.

badmemory

brewerdave wrote: »

.....and to add insult to injury ,I caught a new BEIS advert for Smart meters last night -still pushing the discredited 2% savings angle.:eek:

I heard this on Smooth too. According to the advertising standards agency they are allowed to continue telling these lies, I couldn't even describe it as a half truth.


Why are they bothering fining them. It is a waste of OUR money, because don't for a moment think it will come out of their profits.


A well known phrase or saying including the words booze up & brewery come to mind. At least if the meters were made in the UK we would have the excuse of keeping people in work - not just fitters & people employed to ring us and bully us into accepting.

robin58

Smart meters don't save money on there own, you do that by monitoring your own consumption, reducing energy use, thus saving by having a visual on what you are using.

A proposed saving of £11 per energy per YEAR is nothing to right home about is it.

It's the future use of how the grid and the meters interact will be the more frightening issue later.


Full MP's report here http://www.britishinfrastructuregroup.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/BIG-Not-So-Smart-Full-Report.pdf

Some interesting basic revelations that we have all been saying all along.

melbury

Every time I contact EDF they try and get me to have a smart meter and I keep telling them I don't want one and will only ever have one if it becomes law.

Cardew

robin58 wrote: »

Smart meters don't save money on there own, you do that by monitoring your own consumption, reducing energy use, thus saving by having a visual on what you are using.

A proposed saving of £11 per energy per YEAR is nothing to right home about is it.

It's the future use of how the grid and the meters interact will be the more frightening issue later.

Smart meters themselves certainly do not save money. It is like saying if you drive your car slower you will save money.


When(if) everyone has smart meters, there will be varying rates at different times of the day.

System

Cardew wrote: »

Smart meters themselves certainly do not save money. It is like saying if you drive your car slower you will save money.


When(if) everyone has smart meters, there will be varying rates at different times of the day.

There is a deal of misinformation/misinterpretation about savings. It is convenient to let consumers believe that they will see an immediate reduction in their bills. The truth is these are future savings; ie, if the average bill is £1200 then this will be £11 cheaper in 2020 than it otherwise would have been thanks to such things as ToU tariffs; reduced switching and meter reading costs; better/quicker detection of high voltage faults etc. Against a background of annual price rises, £11 a year will get lost in the margins.

Looking at the consumer experience in other countries, many people will end up with higher bills as a result of ToU tariffs. For example, children like to be fed at teatime when the tariff cost will be at its highest. It will be interesting to see how PCWs evolve to assist consumers in selecting the overall cheapest deal. I suspect that they will want access to individual smart meter data :eek:

davidgmmafan

"
For consumers to feel the benefits of the roll- out,,suppliers would therefore have to pass on
almost all of those savings in the form of lower bills.



Passing on half alone would mean that even in the unlikely scenario all the aforementioned ambitious targets were met, the project would have almost no net benefit for consumers at all. However, as we have seen with changes in wholesale energy prices, while suppliers are quick to pass on cost increases, the same cannot be said for savings and reductions.



Infact, Ofgem reported energy suppliers to the Competition and Markets Authority in

2014 with such concerns, and warned comp
anies against undue price rises in 2017.


The government is also set to introduce an energy price cap, in recognition that the energy supplier
market is not adequately functioning.


Despite this being the case though,the government
still maintains that market forces and competition alone will ensure suppliers keep costs down and pass savings on."