smart meters

caery

Hi,
I'm trying to get quota electricity supply for this cumming year. I keep get this message

NOTE: USIO is unable to support existing smart meters on the tariff you've selected. If you already have a smart meter you will not be able to switch to this tariff.

Why are we having them fitted if it restricts us when trying to buy?

JohnB47

caery wrote: »

Hi,
I'm trying to get quota electricity supply for this cumming year. I keep get this message

NOTE: USIO is unable to support existing smart meters on the tariff you've selected. If you already have a smart meter you will not be able to switch to this tariff.

Why are we having them fitted if it restricts us when trying to buy?

Because Government are forcing the suppliers to fit them, even though they only have first generation ones (SMETS1) to fit and they are often not supported by a new supplier, when people switch.


Many people are waiting for next generation ones (SMETS2) to be fully available before they accept an installation.


Search this forum for 'smart meter' and you will see lots of threads/posts about it.

AndyPK

smaller suppliers are sensibility waiting until the mess is sorted out before supporting them.

well they are waiting for a common agreed solution to be more accurate rather than waste their money

[Deleted User]

caery wrote: »

Hi,
I'm trying to get quota electricity supply for this cumming year. I keep get this message

NOTE: USIO is unable to support existing smart meters on the tariff you've selected. If you already have a smart meter you will not be able to switch to this tariff.

Why are we having them fitted if it restricts us when trying to buy?

It could be because you have selected a prepayment meter tariff.
I would expect Usio to be only using Secure Liberty smart meters , hence their systems are only set up to service Secure meters only.
All smart meters become dumb when switched and all Secure Liberty meters are fine as credit dumb meters, but not in prepayment meter mode for some suppliers and vice versa.
BG fit Landis Gyr and Siemens meters, others fit Elster. These can t be used by the smaller suppliers for use in smart prepay mode who normally use Secure Liberty meters so they would have to pay out to fit one of their won meters. Before they start supplying you they are down a £100 at least. £40 for the meter and another £60 to fit it.
There are enough people around now using Secure Liberty meters so they can be a bit choosy

VfM4meplse

JohnB47 wrote: »

Because Government are forcing the suppliers to fit them, even though they only have first generation ones (SMETS1) to fit and they are often not supported by a new supplier, when people switch.


Many people are waiting for next generation ones (SMETS2) to be fully available before they accept an installation.


Search this forum for 'smart meter' and you will see lots of threads/posts about it.

As I found out this morning.

This closed consultation can be found online: Maximising interoperability for first generation (SMETS1) smart meters. So why in tarnation do our friends in high places continue to push the SMETS1? Sounds like a civil servant might have screwed up in the procurement department and there's a load of meters to shift that aren't actually fit for the future. Waste of taxpayer's money.

Rant for the day over, normal sweetness-and-light service will be resumed now :A

brewerdave

As I haven't got a smart meter already, I (reluctantly) went with a smart Usio tariff as it wasn't much more than the Iresa deal I'd been on ( and more than £100 less than Octopus!!)
Was expecting to have a substantial grace period before they started chasing me for a meter fitting appointment but they phoned within a week of the account opening!
I've managed to put them off temporarily because I don't want a new meter until the Iresa/Octopus final bill is issued ,agreed and paid. Hopefully that will be Xmas or next year:rotfl:

Jojomissy

I have just this week completed my transfer to eversmart. Today I have been talked into a smart meter to be fitted tomorrow afternoon.

I questioned about the compatibility issue and she assured me that the meters were compatible with the smaller companies and just not the big six...is she telling porkies?

Otherwise I will cancel as there is no point in the cost of an engineer fitting them if they become dumb when I move again.

Please help xx

brewerdave

@Jjomissy - read the article in post #5; if they fit a SMETS1 meter it is highly unlikely to be interchangeable in the near future.

System

VfM4meplse wrote: »

As I found out this morning.

This closed consultation can be found online: Maximising interoperability for first generation (SMETS1) smart meters. So why in tarnation do our friends in high places continue to push the SMETS1? Sounds like a civil servant might have screwed up in the procurement department and there's a load of meters to shift that aren't actually fit for the future. Waste of taxpayer's money.

Rant for the day over, normal sweetness-and-light service will be resumed now :A

Taxpayers are not actually paying for this mess: the roll out cost forms part of every energy bill. The Govt is having to look at further delays to the SMETS 2 rollout as there are reports of firmware issues and problems connecting these meters to The Data Communications Company (the central hub) in the Northern region. SMETS1 meters currently connect customer to supplier. Provided people have a mobile signal, these meters work. There was some logic to the foundation stage of this programme: it was to allow suppliers time to design; build and test IT systems to accept 30 minute consumption data. Sadly, the programme has encountered one delay after another.

moonpenny

Jojomissy wrote: »

I have just this week completed my transfer to eversmart. Today I have been talked into a smart meter to be fitted tomorrow afternoon.

I questioned about the compatibility issue and she assured me that the meters were compatible with the smaller companies and just not the big six...is she telling porkies

Otherwise I will cancel as there is no point in the cost of an engineer fitting them if they become dumb when I move again.


Please help xx[/QUOTE

Can you just cancel and not have one at all if it is part of a new tariff ?

Raxiel

Smart or not, all meters have the ability to display the current reading on a screen, and no supplier has a legitimate reason to be unable to accept a manually obtained reading.


So in that regard its true that any given smart meter is in fact compatible with all suppliers, it just might not (and probably won't) keep the self reading 'smart' bit until the DCC is fully live and all meters are upgraded to SMETS2.