Are Smart Meters a good thing?

[Sirius]

Do these meters allow the energy company to remotely turn your service off for none payment ?

Originally Posted by Sirius

Do these meters allow the energy company to remotely turn your service off for none payment ?

With a smart meter it will become technically possible to ‘remotely disconnect’ customers, ie this could be done at a distance, without visiting your home. However, Ofgem (the energy regulator), has introduced tough rules to make sure that energy suppliers have to follow a number of different steps if a customer is in debt, with disconnection only being used as a last resort.

http://www.consumerfocus.org.uk/get-...mart-meters#B4

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Hugh

http://www.consumerfocus.org.uk/get-...mart-meters#B4

Well considering Ofgem is pretty much toothless and the energy companies ignore Ofgem all the time i can see that will be abused all the time. Bet you Npower will be the first to abuse it.

These steps include:

reviewing the customer’s accounts to find out if there is any record of vulnerability in the household
reviewing written contact with the customer to make sure that: it is in plain English; the customer is encouraged to ask for help; and the customer is also directed towards independent sources of help
making multiple attempts to make personal contact with the customer in different ways and at different times of day
visiting the customer’s property at different times of day and looking for visual signs of vulnerability of anyone in the household
checking whether the property appears to be temporarily or permanently unoccupied
checking whether there has been a change of occupancy

Seems pretty easy for them to abuse if you ask me. Also looking at that document they can switch you to a prepayment meter at the press of a switch, they make loads more money from prepayment so i can see them abusing that as well.

From 2014, smart meters will be able to switch between credit and prepayment mode. This will mean that if you want to change from a ‘credit meter’ to a ‘prepayment meter’, you won’t have to have the meter replaced. The energy supplier will be able to do it remotely.

Ofgem, the energy regulator, has published new rules to make sure that customers are only given a PPM if it is right for them. :

Having had a new meter installed this year i will resist having it changed for as long as i can.

[progers]

Originally Posted by Hugh

That's a big difference from being 'thrown out'.....

I know a couple of countries in the Finland/ Denmark area threw them out over privacy concerns but I can't find which two

Originally Posted by progers

I know a couple of countries in the Finland/ Denmark area threw them out over privacy concerns but I can't find which two

Norway

In Norway, the Smart grid priorities are partly driven by the regulator (e.g. the requirement in Norway to implement smart meters by 2019-01-01 and partly by new technologies and challenges such as distributed generation (e.g. small hydro, PV), adoption of electrical vehicles, new challenging electric devices such as induction stoves, fibre-to-home communication, smart phones etc.

Sweden

100% Smart Meter roll-out in Sweden

Denmark

The Danish Energy Agency has declared that all electricity meters must be remotely read by the end of 2020. This announcement and the ensuing roll-out of smart meters for the MV Group are the manifestation of the Danish Government's progressive Smart Grid Strategy [2013]. The strategy’s purpose is to make the grid intelligent and ready for the green transition.

Finland

Switzerland’s Landis+Gyr has heralded progress on the rollout of smart meters in Finland, claiming smart meters have now been installed in 98% of the country’s households.

The figure makes Finland one of the most advanced countries in Europe in terms of its ability to meter electricity consumption at the residential level.
Landis+Gyr (Zug, Switzerland) claims to have delivered more than one million smart meters to a number of Finnish energy companies, which equates to one meter for every third Finnish household (there are approximately 3.2 million metering points in Finland).

It has also been involved in managing old and new meters, systems installation and integration and comprehensive field-testing.
The progress report indicates that Finland is well ahead of smart metering targets, with legislation introduced in 2009 requiring 80% of households to have smart meters installed by the start of 2014.

That leaves Iceland, with it's population of just over 300k - I can't find anything regarding smart metering for them.

[Ken W]

Originally Posted by rhyds

My problem with smart meters is they're trying to be too smart. All the metering/supply company needs to know is how much electricity you've used for billing purposes. I wouldn't mind that being relayed back via powerline networking or the meter's own mobile connection (if available). I'd grudgingly accept a connection to my broadband, but only if I was to have full control of the meter's networking settings. The problem is that if meters are to have a remote disconnection facility then it MUST be secured (and I mean properly secured against internal and external cracking)and ONLY available to specific persons within a metering/supply company (I'm thinking names, senior persons, not Joe Bloggs in a callcentre). Also, I foresee that the meters will be capable of "demand management", or put simply, remote managed powercuts when our coal fired power stations are shut down (down to individual house levels), or you'd find the oven wouldn't power up at 6pm because everyone else in the street got there before you...

My friend has a British Gas Smart Meter and he dose not have broadband, it seems that the Smart Meter has it's on mobile connection.

[Sirius]

Could this be the next big thing. We had cable box chipping, now Sat card sharing, next meter hacking. you get some dodgy guy down the pub to come and hack your meters software

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Hugh

To be fair I thought all disconnections were already done 'remotely, i.e. at a distance, without visiting your home' by having you cut off at the tap. It'd be pretty pointless disconnecting someone inside their own home when they could just go plug it back in again... ---------- Post added at 21:19 ---------- Previous post was at 21:19 ----------

Originally Posted by Sirius

Also looking at that document they can switch you to a prepayment meter at the press of a switch, they make loads more money from prepayment so i can see them abusing that as well. Having had a new meter installed this year i will resist having it changed for as long as i can.

Really? How come our prepayment meter was actually 40% cheaper than the post-pay tariff we were on, before being forced to change due to 'non-payment' owing to their own cock-ups?

[progers]

Disconnections are done at your meter, the main fuse is withdrawn and holder without fuse sealed back in to the socket

[qasdfdsaq]

Interesting, so all those people claiming they've been 'disconnected' without having permitted anyone to enter their home to do so are lying then?

[Harryn9000]

i've got utillia smart meter install in my home they are great using less than i did when on card and key meter 20 quid lasted me on gas a month electric not that good but i think there great

[rhyds]

Originally Posted by Ken W

My friend has a British Gas Smart Meter and he dose not have broadband, it seems that the Smart Meter has it's on mobile connection.

The problem is, as I've mentioned, the small but significant number of properties with electrical supply but no mobile signal at all. How do they "phone home"?

[Ken W]

Originally Posted by rhyds

The problem is, as I've mentioned, the small but significant number of properties with electrical supply but no mobile signal at all. How do they "phone home"?

Carrier pigeon.

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

Interesting, so all those people claiming they've been 'disconnected' without having permitted anyone to enter their home to do so are lying then?

Not everyones meter is inside their home.

[denphone]

Indeed as ours is outside.