Smart meter

Although the possibility of disconnecting is built into a smart meter it would only be used in a crisis or to disconnect for non payment after a safeguarding process. Suppliers are in the business of supply so disconnection is not in their interest. The load sharing during the 3 day week was a very blunt instrument that shut everything down in a chosen area, some process could be used to keep essential services and vulnerable customers supplies uninterrupted if we ever finish up with a shortage of power, we seem to be running very close to the edge at the moment so it might only take a few unfortunate events to put us in trouble.

Mike

We had gas and electricity smart meters installed a couple of years ago, by a kid just out of school who had obviously only been trained to fit meters, he didn't seem to be a quailfied electrician or gas fitter from the ballshit he came up with regarding the running of them.

Phase 1 of power control is already available and in use with the economy 7 storage heater contactor. The switch on time of the heaters is controlled over a window of a few minutes to spread the switch-on surge.

Old mart,

I won't allow anyone through my front door for anything to do with gas until I have checked them out with the gas register. All for giving youngsters a chance to get started in life but what you say, suggests that he should have been accompanied by someone older and experienced, to ensure safety. Hope anyone else reading this thread takes care.

John

Disconnection may be unlikely but forcible installation by energy companies of pre-paid meters has become disturbingly common, not least because the overburdened courts system grants warrants far too readily and uncritically to energy companies.

My own very disabled parents were threatened with a warrant and a pre-paid meter when British Gas inadvertently stopped billing them for six months. In spite of my parents subsequently receiving a written guarantee [obtained by me] from BG that, since the admin error was entirely BG's fault, my parents could continue to pay in manageable monthly installments until the balance was cleared, and in spite of us afterwards paying on the button every month the amount agreed, BG suddenly turned nasty one day, reneged on their written promise, and demanded full payment of the outstanding amount in one hit or a warrant would be obtained for the installation of a pre-paid meter.

We could have afforded to pay the outstanding amount off in one go, but there was a principle at stake, and BG did not have the moral high ground. We took the matter to the energy ombudsman, who found in our favour, but this outcome was no help to us whatever since nothing changed at BG's end and they continued to threaten court action etc.

If my parents' condition had not been become so labour-intensive we might have continued to battle BG, but we became tired of doing so in the face of their bovine intransigence and the near impossibility of even getting hold of a rational human being on the other end of the phone, so the amount was paid off by us in one hit after all.

The message is the probability of an energy company actually cutting you off is probably very low, even when you have a smart meter, but energy companies can and do nevertheless behave very high-handedly at times, and the law is failing to protect many genuinely vulnerable people who find themselves on the receiving end of mistreatment by bully-boy corporations.

Bill

My daughter had a similar experience with BG, she started receiving letters threatening court action because her bill was unpaid, at that time she was with a completely different supplier, and had been since she moved into the house two years previously. BG wouldn’t listen to the fact that she wasn’t even a customer of theirs, it got to the stage where bailiffs were instructed to break into her property and this was only averted when the ombudsman intervened. It transpired that BG were reading a meter at another property in the same Close and the meter serial number on their paperwork wasn’t the one on my daughters meter. It took a long time to resolve and BG didn’t even apologise for any of the months of hassle they caused, my thoughts are if the same scenario were to happen again with smart meters fitted then they would just remotely disconnect the customer and good luck trying to talk to BG, when I was a customer of theirs, a long time ago, I found them to be arrogant with customers and impossible to reason with. Dave W

Surely if the error was an incorrect meter serial number then the smart meter that was cut off would have been your daughter's neighbour's. That would have caused even more trouble for BG

Martin C

There is also this scary scenario hacking a smart meter

* danny *

What a load of rubbish. There is no way you could determine what the electricity is being used for by hacking a smart meter.

As an aside, I don't think gas meters have any facilities built in that would allow them to be turned off remotely.

Peter

I don't think any of the people running cannabis farms have any problems with meters, smart or otherwise.

However, if everyone had a smart meter and the electricity suppliers monitor the power being supplied by each sub-station/transformer they would easily be able to narrow down where the "leak" was. This applies to gas and water as well but I'm not so sure the water companies want to know where their leaks are.

Also be wary of the situation with TV licences in that those addresses without a licence became the target of suspicion.

I'm not sure now who the "supplier" is. Is it the company I pay money to for my power and do they "own" the smart meter and have control over it. If I move "suppliers" do they then "own" the meter. Also if they cut me off they won't receive the benefit of my solar panel power. Maybe they'll only cut me off on cloudy days.

CS

Martin

It wasn’t a smart meter that was involved in my daughters problem with BG, it happened about 12 years ago so was a bog standard meter, the confusion had arisen from when the houses were built, the developers plot numbers were not used for numbering the houses, different numbers were applied but BG were using the original plot numbers and were ignoring house numbers, therefore houses were getting bills for properties that weren’t theirs. BG should have checked the meter serial numbers but didn’t. Dave W

Sorry to hear that, Dave.

Sadly, it doesn't surprise me.

Edited By Bill Phinn on 23/01/2022 14:27:01

The electricity supply company has control of the smart meter, but they don't "own" them. They are apparently leased from finance companies.

Peter

Eleven hour power outage thanks to Eunice. Well done the engineers from Wester Power who must have been working on it until 9pm.
It saved me about 3KWh on today's usage - must be the fridge and dehumidifiers. Boy did I miss electric light - how did anyone ever read by candle light? Made me think though when this house was built it was candles and oil lamps only.
I think it is the first time for >55years I have been without power in the evening in the UK (excluding camping etc self inflicted). I specifically remember the time as a teenager I had to go for a walk 'cos no TV.

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I had the exact same experience when I moved into a new property (three new properties on the site).

Took a long time and numerous meter readers before they managed to correct the records, fortunately not BG but other gas companies just as bad, they just would not beleive us when we sent them the meter information.

They thought we were in a block of flats rather than 3 detached properties.

Seems the latest generation of 'Smart@ meters may have to go to a third generation as, around Fylingdales, they are accused of affecting the nuclear warning systems.

Regards Ian.

I get the impression that they haven’t thought this through properly in terms of functionality etc. especially if they want to manage supply and return from things like EV’s etc?

i have a problem with my daughters supplier sp they keep sending her an estimated bill, but will not sort out if they are reading the correct meter or not, i think that there has been an installation mix up with these new properties and the meters they have installed and wonder if they are looking at the wrong meter and account all properties are fitted with smart meters if she rings up the company they put the phone down on her and or issue a threat of baliffs calling round.she has tried to change supplier but in this present situation its impossible to change as some companies are already in administration.

I wonder if the smart meter has enough battery power to send a 'lost supply' message. Or if they report half hourly as has been mentioned it gives the power company a quick and accurate report of outages.