A quarter of households have had a smart meter installed - MSE News

A quarter of households in Britain have had a smart meter installed, MPs were told this morning...

Unfortunately less than 2% of these will continue to operate in smart mode (if not stopped already) should the customer elect to switch supplier

...the plan is that in due course you will be able to remotely upgrade it with software to allow it to ...

... again operate as a smart meter

However, there are already some reports that suggest this will not be possible, at least for some of the early meters installed.
There are no guarantees, as no one has developed the software upgrade yet.

These first generation meters that do not currently continue to operate in smart mode after switching supplier may still be installed up to March this year.

Had one installed due to a £50 Amazon bribe. Don't plug it in. Hasn't changed our behaviour. Won't be resulting in us saving any electricity as we are already quite sensible anyway. At least it means we don't have to provide readings I guess.


If they wanted us to use it to look at our usage, the interface should have been as an app rather than a whole new, resource-requiring, power-consuming gadget. Cost to the electricity company of installing our smart meter = god knows what, but at least it stopped them pestering me, and I got my Amazon voucher. I somehow doubt I'm the only one to treat the roll out like this.


Overall, probably one of the biggest Government shambles I can remember. It's like the universal credit roll out, but screwing over everyone who pays a utility bill instead of just benefit claimants.

wavelets wrote: »

However, there are already some reports that suggest this will not be possible, at least for some of the early meters installed.
There are no guarantees, as no one has developed the software upgrade yet.

Which reports? How do you know that "no one has developed the software upgrade yet" (QUOTE).

Probably the problem we have in discussing the proposed software upgrade is that discussion has been confined to the industry in particular manufacturers of smart meters. But information is available if you care to search for it> As a starting point try:
https://www.cgi-group.co.uk/en-gb/utilities/smart-metering

There are basically two camps: Those who say that the SMETS1 upgrade will be completed during 2019 to make most meters interoperable with the DCC which are principally the government, OFGEM, CGI and the DCC. The other camp is one which says that the government, OFGEM, CGI and the DCC are talking rubbish and the software upgrade will never happen. One or other of those camps will eventually end up with egg on their faces.

Heres an amazing headline....3/4 of households dont have a smart meter.

Anthorn wrote: »

Which reports? How do you know that "no one has developed the software upgrade yet" (QUOTE).

Probably the problem we have in discussing the proposed software upgrade is that discussion has been confined to the industry in particular manufacturers of smart meters. But information is available if you care to search for it> As a starting point try:
https://www.cgi-group.co.uk/en-gb/utilities/smart-metering

There are basically two camps: Those who say that the SMETS1 upgrade will be completed during 2019 to make most meters interoperable with the DCC which are principally the government, OFGEM, CGI and the DCC. The other camp is one which says that the government, OFGEM, CGI and the DCC are talking rubbish and the software upgrade will never happen. One or other of those camps will eventually end up with egg on their faces.

I can see why you recommended that website, "Smart Metering for Dummies - second edition" how very apt.

That website has to be the worst that I have seen so far and has absolutely no useful information on it whatsoever!

Search for "SMETS" - "No results"

I suppose that you believe the rubbish posted by MSE's news reporter quoted above, which shows that we cannot believe everything that we read on MSE.

There is so much misinformation posted on the forums which is understandable but surely we should expect any MSE news item to be properly researched and to be factually correct.