Why I Refuse a Smart Meter and You Should Too
Introduction
Back in 2008 Gordon Brown’s government introduced powers for a smart meter rollout in the Energy Act 2008 . The rollout then began under the equally disastrous Cameron-Clegg coalition in 2011.
What has followed has been a litany of false claims and a test case in wasting tax payer money. The roll out is currently estimated to cost £13.5 billion (this figure has been revised up several times).
Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis told the Telegraph – the roll-out “had been hideous and over-expensive. We’ve all paid far too much for individuals to have the facility of having smart meters, because it’s been done in just a shambles of a way”.
To add insult to injury, bill-payers are also forced to fund an appalling advertisement campaign featuring a caricature of Einstein described as “cheesy and ineffective”. The ad agency AMV BBDO seem confused about whether it’s the children or adults in a household who pay the energy bills.
The government makes several claims here for national benefits; including “Our latest analysis shows that the rollout is delivering more benefits to the country than it is costing to deliver”. Any breakdown of this “analysis” is not easy to find.
Apparently, engineers will know much faster when power cuts have occurred. Presumably because home owners will be too busy sitting in the dark staring at a blank TV screen to call in the fault.
Energy company spokespeople have previously been making the claim that the data from smart meters would allow energy companies to supply our energy in a more efficient way. Details of how this was to be achieved were never given but this claim seems to have been silently dropped.
Benefits to Consumers?
We are told as customers we should want a smart meter for real-time energy monitoring and automatic meter readings. The wisdom here is that by having an ugly in-home display ticking up your energy somehow this means you will limit your usage. For example, you will realise that you forgot to turn off the arc furnace in the garage so it’s – ‘sorry kids we’ve blown the budget so you are doing homework by candlelight for the rest of the month’.
For most consumers reading the electricity meter is a simple task completed in no time at all. For civil servants working from home, reading the meters is a positively rewarding activity giving value to their day.
The only valid argument is for “innovative smart tariffs allow consumers to save money by using energy away from peak times or when there is excess clean electricity available”, however, these tariffs are not available for all consumers such as the unlucky owners of a 1st generation smart meter (see later).
Freedom is slavery
Smart meters are not mandatory but we are already seeing the best energy rates only being offered to customers with smart meters. If your current non-smart meter reaches end of life according to its ‘certification date’ then your supplier will greedily snap you up as a new smart meter customer. In fact, suppliers are not even allowed to fit a traditional meter no matter the wishes of the householder. If your traditional meter fails then your energy company will replace it with a smart meter counting towards their target for roll-out.
Privacy Concerns
Smart meter customers are assured their data is secure – personal identifying data is not stored with the smart meter. Energy providers can, however, assign usage to a name and address to produce bills. We are told to just blindly trust the providers to keep our data secure (unlike say Npower did in 2021).
Remotely Cut Off
Another scary feature of smart meters, that is not mentioned nearly enough, is being remotely disconnected. Possibly because the first scandals are yet to come to light.
After a court order and 7 days written notice a smart meter holder can be remotely disconnected. Most people will pay their energy bills, but happens when a worker, in an out-sourced operations centre 7000 miles away, keys in number 72 instead of 27? Do you trust these companies not to prioritise cost over your energy security?
Reliability and Accuracy
The first generation of smart meters SMETS1 were myopically fitted with 3G sim cards. Many homeowners wished they had never had these fitted as they became “dumb” when switching to a new supplier. Bill payers have footed the bill for £14.6 million of these meters to be installed!
The BBC reported last year that 4 million smart meters were faulty. Citizen’s advice found nearly 1 in 3 experienced issues with the unsightly in-home display and reported “Meter problems have led to some racking up debt due to readings not being sent automatically”. There are countless such tales of consumers being hit with eye-watering bills after smart meter related mix ups.
Conclusion
For a renter, or a consumer with a prepayment meter, then a smart meter may have benefits but for most UK households the dangers outweigh any nebulous claimed benefits.
The only true benefit is around demand shifting. This is where a time-of-use tariff offers cheaper rates for using energy at off peak times, however, a 2019 government cost benefit analysis admits that it is unclear how many households can take up these tariffs even if offered.
References
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2008/32/contents
Smart Metering Implementation Programme – Cost-Benefit Analysis 2019
I disagree strongly with this article in the ‘benefits for consumers’ section. I believe the authors cynicism lacks scientific evidence.
As attested by my published research conducted in Denmark, Smart meters do lead to behavioural changes that enhance the usage of clean energy.
I can’t comment on the rollout of the said smart meters and I believe the UK government may have proceeded somewhat clumsily in the way they made conflated promises about those BUT I maintain that all in all, base on empirical evidence, smart meters are necessary for effective energy monitoring and consumption.