METER MADNESS!
Dumb gets even dumber as ‘smart’ device must be replaced when you swap supplier
SO-CALLED ‘smart’ energy meters designed to help households save money are making it harder for people to switch to cheaper deals. The meters are not always compatible between energy suppliers. It means that if you switch gas or electricity provider you may also need a new smart meter.
Last month, The Mail on Sunday revealed that the £11 billion project to get 26 million homes to install high-tech meters is costing households an average £420 in higher energy bills.
The meters allow users to watch in near-real time how much electricity and gas they are using in the home. They do away with bill estimates as readings are taken remotely by a supplier using radio waves. The meters also come with hand-held devices that show your energy consumption. Experts believe they may bring savings of about £20 a year as people learn to adopt energy-saving habits such as turning off a TV previously on standby. But energy watchdog Ofgem figures show that far bigger savings of £325 a year can be made if customers on expensive electricity and gas tariffs switch to suppliers that offer cheaper deals – a savings tactic not all smart meter users can enjoy without hassle. Retired engineer Brian Russell, 74, and wife Carol, 72, save as much as £400 a year from regularly switching energy providers.
Brian, who lives in Glasgow, says: ‘It is a ridiculous state of affairs that every year I switch my gas and electricity supplier, yet an engineer must come and fit a new smart meter as the old one is no longer compatible.’
The couple began with energy supplier Ovo which provided a smart meter a year after they were introduced in 2014. The next year they moved to Scottish Gas and the smart meter had to be replaced. Finally, this May they went to EDF.
Brian says: ‘This time it was even worse as not only did a new smart meter need to be fitted but the monitoring system it spent so much time installing did not work. It is frustrating that the Government has not planned ahead and set up a national standard for smart meters.’
Technical flaws in the first generation of smart meters – known as SMETS 1 – mean that when you switch provider the meter no longer automatically reads the energy consumption for the new supplier.
It also means the hand-held display that came with the meter may no longer provide the cost of energy used but only details of the kilowatts consumed.
These problems were to have been solved by a new model – SMETS 2. But this is already two years overdue and may be delayed until next year. SMETS is the industry acronym used for Smart Metering Equipment Technical Specification.
The industry is also working on a way for suppliers to adapt existing SMETS 1 readers so they work just like SMETS 2 devices.
This would do away with ripping out an old smart meter and replacing it with a new one every time you change supplier. Yet the technical challenge to standardise the network is proving difficult. Even with a solution it will take years to roll out.
Alex Henney, a former Govern- ment adviser on energy privatisation and ex- director of London Electricity, is a big critic of how smart meters have been introduced.
He believes the rollout of meters must be suspended and not started again until meters are available which are compatible with all suppliers. At present the Government wants every home in Britain to be fitted with a smart meter by 2020.
He says: ‘This project has been badly managed by civil servants who
are out of their depth. Their failure is due to an unwillingness to employ competent advisers who understood all the issues. The concept of “smart” is just marketing fluff.’
The cost of installing smart meters – i ncluding the replacement or changes to old ones so they can be read by new suppliers – is to be met by households via a charge on their energy bills. These have already risen by more than 10 per cent this year to an average £1,150.