The hidden costs of a 'free' smart meter

thorganby

Energy suppliers are charged up to £75 a year per household to rent out the devices

• Providers have to pay rent to various firms for the smart meters 
• This means, although free to customers, their bills might be more expensive 
• Rents can be as much as 14p a day for energy suppliers 

It is likely these costs are passed on indirectly in the form of higher energy bills.

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-9397955/Suppliers-charged-14p-day-rent-smart-meters.html

ProDave

I keep asking "what is the benefit to ME to have a smart meter?"

I have not found one, so concluded the "benefit" is to someone else.  I won't be having one until compulsory.

JJ_Egan

Its old old news customers pay .

Hasbeen

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-4846700/Smart-meters-cost-household-420.html

Gerry1

Since that article was written, the cost of the smart meter fiasco has risen from £11 billion to £13 billion, so the £420 cost per household has risen to £496.  All for an alleged benefit officially estimated at just £11 per household per year.

It's the economics of the madhouse ! 

[Deleted User]

Gerry1 said:

Since that article was written, the cost of the smart meter fiasco has risen from £11 billion to £13 billion, so the £420 cost per household has risen to £496.  All for an alleged benefit officially estimated at just £11 per household per year.

It's the economics of the madhouse ! 

FWiW, BEIS disagrees with you:

Quote: 
* from 2022 the smart meter roll-out delivers a net benefit to households within GB, and by 2034 the average household will be benefitting by over £36. Over the entire appraisal period, the average household is expected to see a cumulative total net benefit of nearly £250 compared to the counterfactual scenario where the smart meter roll-out was not implemented. This demonstrates that whilst, in common with lots of infrastructure projects, there are net costs to households in the early years of the appraisal period (reaching a maximum of nearly £11 in 2018), these costs are more than offset in the medium-to-long run. Looking across the appraisal period, it is in 2026 that the cumulative benefits from smart meters start to outweigh the costs, and from that year onwards the total benefit smart meters deliver continues to grow in perpetuity. Unquote  (Source: Cost Benefit Analysis)

NB: The smart meter appraisal period is from 2013 to 2034.

Gerry1

Dolor said:

Gerry1 said:

Since that article was written, the cost of the smart meter fiasco has risen from £11 billion to £13 billion, so the £420 cost per household has risen to £496.  All for an alleged benefit officially estimated at just £11 per household per year.

It's the economics of the madhouse ! 

FWiW, BEIS disagrees with you:

To mis-quote Mandy Rice-Davies, 'Well, they would say that, wouldn't they ?'

MikeE67

Gerry1 said:

Since that article was written, the cost of the smart meter fiasco has risen from £11 billion to £13 billion, so the £420 cost per household has risen to £496.  All for an alleged benefit officially estimated at just £11 per household per year.

It's the economics of the madhouse ! 

It wouldn't be so bad if they actually worked !
I had a meter exchange only 6 weeks ago and it only stayed 'smart' for around 2 weeks now my energy supplier is trying to get it working again.

sevenhills

ProDave said:

I keep asking "what is the benefit to ME to have a smart meter?"

I have not found one, so concluded the "benefit" is to someone else.  I won't be having one until compulsory.

Most peoples energy meters are in awkward places. As I get older I am glad that I have a display unit on my kitchen inside windowsill.

phillw

Energy companies have to buy enough energy to supply their customers, but the amount of energy is  estimated based on the percentage of customers they supply in an area if they only have monthly reads. Even if their own customers aren't using any energy at a particular time.

The old meter system is the economics of a madhouse.

Tokmon

ProDave said:

I keep asking "what is the benefit to ME to have a smart meter?"

I have not found one, so concluded the "benefit" is to someone else.  I won't be having one until compulsory.

  This is exactly why they should have been compulsory from the start and it was silly to give people a choice.

Gerry1 said:

Since that article was written, the cost of the smart meter fiasco has risen from £11 billion to £13 billion, so the £420 cost per household has risen to £496.  All for an alleged benefit officially estimated at just £11 per household per year.

It's the economics of the madhouse ! 

This is where people are misunderstanding because the benefit of smart meters is not for the customers it's for the energy companies so they can make sure everyone get an accurate bill without them having to rely on people to give readings.
But the big benefit of the rollout is that once we have a smart national grid and they know exactly where energy is required and how much they can generate it far more efficiently. This means there will be far less overgeneration based on assumed demand and save a lot of resources overall.