Smart meters: Conservative party pledges to make smart meters voluntary
On page 60 of the Conservative party's election manifesto lies a change to the controversial smart meter roll-out plans, writes Ruth Jackson.
The Conservative party has pledged to make smart meters voluntary in its 2017 General Election manifesto.
It's a policy change that will save £11 billion, but rather than shout about it the Conservatives have buried it in the middle of their massive manifesto document.
Turn to page 60 of the Tory manifesto and you’ll see a fairly innocuous sentence: “everyone will be offered a smart meter by 2020”.
Here’s why it matters.
A massive U-turn
It may seem like nothing, but that sentence – first spotted by The Telegraph here – marks a change of tack on a controversial Government policy that has been rattling on for years.
Bods in the electricity meter industry came up with smart meters two decades ago. The idea was that if we all can see how much energy we are using, we’ll use less.
The problem is that smart meters cost £50 a pop and have a 15-year lifespan. In contrast, old, straight-forward meters cost £15 and last for around 50 years.
So, smart meters would have to convince us to save a lot of money in order to recoup the cost of having one.
Not the solution
Under the Labour Government, three separate impact assessments showed that smart meters weren’t viable in Britain, while one assessment said they were. So, the Government committed to put smart meters in 80% of homes by 2020.
The reason that most of the assessments said that they weren’t viable is because in Britain the meters are owned by energy suppliers, who have no motivation to encourage you to use less energy.
As a result, many of us now have these meters but have received no info from our supplier on how to cut our usage, nor been give any incentive to do so.
What a number of people have discovered is if you have a smart meter installed and then try to switch supplier, you face an uphill struggle as each supplier uses a different smart meter and can’t seem to communicate with another supplier’s machines. So, switch and you may find yourself having to fork out for a new smart meter.
This means people are being put off switching and instead are stuck and unable to shop around for a better deal.
But what about the savings?
They are pitiful. The estimate is that by 2020 a smart meter will save a household around £11 a year, if they have one installed for both their gas and electricity.
As we’ve mentioned already, the cost of installing the meters is likely to hit £11 billion, and the energy firms are passing that on to the customer with price rises.
Now, finally, the Government has spotted an opportunity to ditch this plan by quietly announcing it will make smart meters voluntary if they win the election.
Increasing pressure to help households cut their energy bills meant this white elephant had to be culled.
Doing it now means the Government can dodge pressure from the industry as we’re in the middle of an election so the lobbyists have no one to talk to, and by the time the new Government returns to Parliament it will be too late.
Now how do I go about getting rid of my smart meter?
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Comments
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centrum46 I too keep a monthly log of my meter readings. I too do not want a smart meter, although I have been offered same. But I do know that my electricity consumption is stable over the year, and has decreased since fitting LED lamps. I know that my Gas consumption can vary by 20% depending on the severity of the winter. I don't need a smart meter to tell me that a kettle uses more electricity when its on than a food mixer. I don't recall Royal mail prices increasing 4 fold, and I certainly do not recall being able to post a 2kg parcel for £2.80 in the past pre privatisation. Its prices are subject to increasing competition from alternative parcel delivery services and regular mail volumes are being eroded by electronic forms of communication. Its can't raise prices as it likes - the competition keeps it honest - perhaps more so than the energy companies. So I certainly do not agree that privatisation automatically raises prices. What it does do is take the Government out of supplying services which are not part of its core function. With the Royal Mail in the private sector it needs lower subsidies and pays corporation tax on profits. If it messes up the costs fall on shareholders rather than the government.
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So here's a question. If you have solar panels fitted and are not using much electrickery, it is occasionally possible to feed some power back into the grid and receive credits against your bill. If the "smart" meter is merely a current sensing clamp, it has no concept of which side of the cable is generating the power. How "smart" is a "smart" meter, and could the consumer be charged for sharing power back to the network?
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My advice is DO NOT INSTALL A SMART METER. BBC Radio 4 You and Yours consumer programme recently highlighted that if you are currently a British Gas customer and install one of their smart meters, you are stuck with them as a supplier. If you change supplier the smart meter not only stops working but you are also likely to lose your entire supply until BG come out and remove it - which they are not keen to do if you aren't their customer any more. People have been stuck without ANY electricity for days because of this and BG are trying to hush it up.
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31 May 2017