The smart meter roll-out is a vanity project in which the consumer loses

SIR – Your editorial (“Smart meters are yet another British mess”, July 31) refers to the success of the Italian roll-out by Enel Distribuzione. In 2000, Enel started to design a smart electricity meter and by 2008 it had installed 32 million at half the cost of our scheme. The initiative had a clear objective – to cut theft – and was undertaken by engineers who knew what they were doing.

In contrast, our roll-out became a political vanity project, with a stream of politicians prattling on about “customer empowerment”.

It was undertaken by civil servants who had little understanding of communications technology and made up the cost-benefit analyses to please ministers who could claim they were going to save us billions. The civil servants knew the words well enough to bamboozle ignorant politicians and to cover their backs – at our expense. Alex Henney

London N6 SIR – Keith Chambers (Letters, July 25) writes that some power companies have “apparently” installed smart meters in the knowledge that they won’t work. They have; I’ve got one.

My supplier contacted me two years ago and suggested that we have one fitted. On the allocated day, the installer arrived and the first thing he did was to check the availability of a mobile phone signal. There wasn’t one – something we could have told our supplier, had we been asked.

The meter was still installed, but without instructions, and I was later inundated with emails from my supplier saying that it appeared not to be working and suggesting ways to repair it. I tried to explain about the lack of a mobile phone signal, but was met with scepticism.

As with digital radio, we are being led down the road of modern technology before we all have the infrastructure in place to support it. Matthew Biddlecombe

Sampford Courtenay, Devon SIR – When my smart meter was installed, the team arrived, examined my meter cupboard and said there wasn’t enough space for the new meter.

I asked whether this happened often. The reply: “Every one so far today.” Stephen Clough

Wilmslow, Cheshire

SIR – Your report (July 30) claims that the cost of cooking a Christmas or Easter lunch could rocket in a smart meter-enabled home.

In fact, low demand during public holidays pushes down the cost of buying power and gas from wholesale markets, savings that will be passed on to consumers who have opted into time-of-use energy tariffs.

It is, therefore, the smart homes that will be able to roast their Christmas turkeys on the cheap, while those that fail to adopt the technology will be paying the higher price. Dr Jonathan Marshall

Head of Analysis, Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit

London SE1