Prepaid Electricity meters - how much data does supplier get?

lepidopterist

Hello there!

Apologies if this is a duplicate thread, I searched and found no relevant info.

If you don't want the waffly context skip to the TLDR section at the end!

---

I am in dispute with my electricity supplier. When I moved in, there was a standard meter. It was clearly faulty, and for several years I tried to get the supplier to check it; they refused to do so without a substantial downpayment from me, that I was unable to afford.

Things came to a head last year, they sent bailiffs round, and fitted a prepayment meter. I was delighted.

Subsequently my metered electricity usage has dropped by over 50%, and that's almost entirely winter months (my house is 100% electric, I work from home, rarely leave the property, and have been heating extensively in day time).

My supplier is now trying to claim my usage patterns have changed; I am not "visiting the property" as regularly as I used to, and sundry other conspiracy theories. All complete nonsense.

I believe that even if they only have a record of my payments and total units expended per key charge, they would struggle to substantiate this claim, but....

---

---

TLDR!

---

---

...surely the meter will provide them - at the very least - a timestamp record of when each unit is deducted from the balance? Thus giving them sufficient information to know precisely when I've been at the property, and the ability to contrast it with periods when I have not?

Many thanks for your attention and patience

*edit* As mentioned below, it's an Actaris Talexus ACE9000 KBD meter

MWT

Do you know if you have a smart meter?


If you are not sure check the meter it should have a make/model on it somewhere...

lepidopterist

It is not a smart meter, it's a key operated prepayment meter. I should have included this in the original post, it appears to be (with some google crossreferencing of its markings) an


*drumroll*

Actaris Talexus ACE9000 KBD

I've even found a manual for it online (:cool:), along with the following marketing blurb:

Single Phase Prepayment Meter

The Actaris ACE9000 KBD is an integrated electricity prepayment meter designed for single-phase applications. Based on the Key Budget series of prepayment meters, the ACE9000 KBD utilises the proven key token for two-way credit and debt management.

The ACE9000 KBD provides a highly secure and flexible mechanism for revenue collection and allows prepayment customers to be managed efficiently and cost-effectively.

With a modern ergonomic design and twenty year certification life, the compact ACE9000 KBD offers significant additional operational benefits over existing meter types, while maintaining compatibility ACE9000 KBDwith existing key token meters, key tokens and support infrastructure

I've seen a couple of other Talexus models who have blurb that talks more about DATA, but the meter I have displays remaining credit, which makes me hopeful that it also logs the times when each unit of credit is expended?

MWT

I'm afraid you are expecting too much in terms of logging.



They will know what you have loaded onto the meter, they will know how many units have been used and they will know the remaining balance, they will not know precisely when the power was consumed.


A smart meter can give a lot more granularity to the usage data, but your meter isn't one of those sadly...

lepidopterist

Okay, that's good to know. I will have to rely on other sources to prove my location, this has been very helpful, thank you