Smart Meters
This month saw a flurry of negative press about smart meters as journalists awoke to the implications of some proposed industry changes that could lead to suppliers remotely switching off appliances used by domestic consumers. Back in July, SSE proposed a modification to the [...]
The Government has finally agreed to extend the deadline for smart meter installation, pushing it back to 2024 under a new supplier obligation that will come into effect from 1 January 2021 when the current obligation ends. At the same time, the latest cost [...]
On Friday, the National Audit Office (“NAO”) published its latest evaluation of the UK’s smart meters programme and concluded: “The facts are that the programme is late, the costs are escalating, and in 2017 the cost of installing smart meters was 50% higher than [...]
In my second post on energy myths I addressed the myth that the energy price cap would save money for consumers. Another money-saving myth relates to smart meters, with politicians insisting that consumers will save money on their bills thanks to smart meters, while [...]
With the deadline for smart meter installation just 30 months away, more than 11 million smart meters had been fitted in domestic properties by the end of March 2018 against a target of over 50 million – in order to meet the deadline, consumer [...]
As the dust settles (or not) after the General Election, the wider impact on the energy sector is unclear, however one initiative continues on despite increasing calls for a re-think: smart meters. I have previously written about the technological shortcomings of the project – [...]
A few months ago I wrote about the smart meter roll-out in the UK. My main conclusions were that this project is premature and likely to cost more and deliver less than projected. I broke my concerns down into a number of key areas: [...]
When I decided to write about smart meters, I thought it would be fairly straightforward…explain what they are, why they are being introduced, what are the costs and benefits etc. What I have discovered is that the world is split into three groups…people like [...]