Shock tactics
Drive for smart meters gets ugly as energy firms claim: ‘Old ones may be UNSAFE’
ENERGY suppliers are adopting scare tactics to force customers to rip out t heir reliable old meters and replace them with unnecessary ‘smart’ alternatives.
Provider SSE is sending out ‘keep your home safe’ letters to some of its 7.7 million customers.
The letters state that the customer’s electricity meter is ‘nearing the end of its lifespan and needs to be replaced’ with a new smart meter. This is even though it may continue to work perfectly well for decades. To increase alarm it also states older meters can become ‘unreliable’ and ‘unsafe’.
The tactic, described by some people as ‘underhand’ and ‘deplorable’, is the latest by the energy supply industry to get customers to sign up to smart meters in the next three years – a deadline set by the Government.
If suppliers cannot prove they have tried to get all their customers to switch, they face being fined up to a tenth of t heir revenue by industry regulator Ofgem – potentially a multi-million pound penalty.
Other energy suppliers are bombarding customers with almost daily ‘friendly reminders’ via phone, text and letter to grind them into making a switch.
The smart meter does away with estimates for bills as the meter readings are taken remotely by the provider via radio waves.
It comes with a hand-held display that shows each home how much energy is being used and its cost in near real-time.
But the total bill for this new technology is £11 billion – £420 for every household – collected through energy bills that have already risen by about 10 per cent this year to an annual average of £1,150.
Despite three years of campaigning – featuring a £224 million advertising blitz starring the irritating cartoon characters Gaz and Leccy – take-up of smart meters is stubbornly slow. Only seven million of the 26 million households i n Britain have adopted the new technology.
Qualified electrician Mike Redfern-Jones has more than 35 years of experience wiring homes and installing meters. He says: ‘The energy suppliers are using nonsense scare tactics in a desperate bid to get people to switch.
‘In all my years I have never come across a case of a traditional energy meter needing to be replaced on safety grounds. As far as I am concerned the old fashioned rotating-disk reader is a better-made device than these flimsy new meters.’
The 54-year-old, who lives in Denbigh, North Wales, points out that unlike the old-fashioned meter, the new smart meter is already causing problems.
His own smart meter stopped working when he moved his account from Eon to EDF Energy six months ago.
Mike has also had a customer who lost his hot water when a smart meter was wrongly fitted. Industry regulator Ofgem insists all meter designs are approved and examined by an arm of the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy known as ‘Regulatory Delivery’.
John Hainey is one of thousands of SSE customers to have received a ‘keep your home safe’ letter. He says: ‘My wife and I have been contacted by SSE on numerous occasions and encouraged to change our traditional meter with one of these new devices.
‘The latest tactic the energy supplier has adopted is rather underhand. To suggest our present meter is nearing the end of its lifespan and needs replacing is a cynical marketing ploy – and we have no intention of giving in.’
In recent weeks, The Mail on Sunday has been inundated with complaints about new smart meters – everything from inaccurate readings to meters refusing to work if a householder switches energy supplier.
Although second generation smart meters should overcome switchi ng problems, t heir i ntroduction may be pushed back to the end of next year.
Many readers have also voiced their concerns over the new gadget being vulnerable to hacking as – unlike an old-fashioned meter – it communicates via radio signals. Claims that smart meters will also encourage people to adopt energy-savings habits when they see how they are using energy are also not proven.
An SSE spokesman says: ‘ We are obliged to replace meters once they reach the end of their lifespan.
‘Customers are under no obligation to have a smart meter installed.’