Millions of taxpayers cash to keep Bulb going

[Deleted User]

oliverbrown said:

EssexHebridean said:

It's quite protective against scaremongerers, apparently...

Is anyone disputing that smart meters enable energy supplies to be cut off remotely? Which is all I said.

With a Court Order or with the consumer’s permission a smart meter can indeed be disconnected from the Grid. The latter forms part of a fixed power contract: the consumer gets a cheaper tariff for agreeing to limit power at certain times of the day. This type of tariff is in use in a number of European countries.

It is worth looking at the Ofgem statistics on the number of homes that have been disconnected in recent years. You might be surprised.

oliverbrown

emmajones1976 said:

So your theory is that they would do that to 1.7m people, most of which would have paid their bills on time, if the worst came to the worst?

Who is scaremongering now?

emmajones1976

oliverbrown said:

emmajones1976 said:

So your theory is that they would do that to 1.7m people, most of which would have paid their bills on time, if the worst came to the worst?

Who is scaremongering now?

Not me, read back to see who first brought this into the discussion. 

A_Lert

How have things worked with people on prepayment meters with the previous supplier failures? Bulb were big on the smart prepayment meters with using an app to topup, that kind of thing. If they ceased all operations and nothing was done then it seems like anyone on prepay would indeed get cut off because the computer systems that do topups wouldn't be running any more, right?

[Deleted User]

Quote:

There were only six electricity disconnections for debt and, for the first time since we started recording data on disconnections, in 2018 there were no gas disconnections for debt. This is again a considerable decrease compared to 2017 when 17 customers were disconnected for debt. There have been no disconnections for debt for gas and electricity in either Scotland or Wales. All six disconnections for debt occurred in England. We are very pleased to see this reduction in gas disconnections for debt from a peak of 5,727 disconnections in 2007. Unquote

Source: Ofgem

No one is going to authorise SoLRs or Administrators to turn off a supply when the sole aim of the SoLR/Administration process is to keep the lights on after a supplier failure. Suppliers now elect for pre-payment meters when there are unresolved debt issues.

emmajones1976

[Deleted User] said:

Quote:

There were only six electricity disconnections for debt and, for the first time since we started recording data on disconnections, in 2018 there were no gas disconnections for debt. This is again a considerable decrease compared to 2017 when 17 customers were disconnected for debt. There have been no disconnections for debt for gas and electricity in either Scotland or Wales. All six disconnections for debt occurred in England. We are very pleased to see this reduction in gas disconnections for debt from a peak of 5,727 disconnections in 2007. Unquote

Source: Ofgem

No one is going to authorise SoLRs or Administrators to turn off a supply when the sole aim of the SoLR/Administration process is to keep the lights on after a supplier failure. Suppliers now elect for pre-payment meters when there are unresolved debt issues.

No no no 1.7m people risked being cut off apparently!

Inigo_Montoya

one thing that would definately help IMO is a change in the rules so that energy suppliers HAVE to allow customers to pay by variable direct debit i.e. so customers do not build up any credit balance - better still make it the default option unless a customer decides to opt out

As well as being beneficial for many customers, its also beneficial if the supplier goes bust as the amount of built up credit that needs to be repaid by the Ofgem insurance fund will be less

It would also mean small companies would be less able to "mis-use" such  customer credit balances for nefarious purposes (such as what has been discussed regarding AVRO)

Gerry1

emmajones1976 said:

oliverbrown said:

emmajones1976 said:

they will go round cutting off their gas and electric?

Unrealistic to physically shut off supplies in person, easier to do with smart meters.

oliverbrown said:

emmajones1976 said:

they will go round cutting off their gas and electric?

Unrealistic to physically shut off supplies in person, easier to do with smart meters.

Reminds me, I must buy some more tin foil.

...or take the trouble to find out the facts by reading the smart meter specification.

emmajones1976

Gerry1 said:

emmajones1976 said:

oliverbrown said:

emmajones1976 said:

they will go round cutting off their gas and electric?

Unrealistic to physically shut off supplies in person, easier to do with smart meters.

oliverbrown said:

emmajones1976 said:

they will go round cutting off their gas and electric?

Unrealistic to physically shut off supplies in person, easier to do with smart meters.

Reminds me, I must buy some more tin foil.

...or take the trouble to find out the facts by reading the smart meter specification.

I dont dispute your statement. It was more the suggestion or inference it could be used as a blunt instrument to cut off over 3m people in 1.7m households from their gas and electric supply through no fault of their own.

Rich2808

roddydogs said:

All the £50 refer a friend coming home to roost!

I got £100!