By Paul Homewood
The BBC cover a critical Parliamentary report on smart meters:
People who have smart meters installed are expected to save an average of £11 annually on their energy bills, much less than originally hoped.
A report from a parliamentary group now predicts a dual fuel saving of £26.
In a critical report, the 92 MPs and peers also said the government was likely to miss its own deadline to have the £11bn switchover completed.
Up to 53 million smart meters were to be installed in 30 million homes and businesses by the end of 2020.
A smart meter is designed to replace traditional gas and electricity meters.
It automatically sends usage data to suppliers via the mobile phone network, and comes with a display showing users how much energy they are using – and the cost in pounds and pence.
Conservative MP Grant Shapps, the chairman of the British Infrastructure Group (BIG), said the programme had been "plagued by repeated delays and cost increases, with suppliers now almost certain to miss the 2020 deadline, and programme benefits likely to be slashed even further".
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Shapps said one of the reasons for the "mess" was that "first generation" smart meters, which do not always work when a customer switches supplier, will continue to be rolled out until next year.
He added: "We need to shift to a reliable timetable, we need to quit installing obsolete old meters… and we need to have the regulator become a lot tougher."
The government said smart meters were already putting consumers in control of their energy use, while industry body Energy UK said suppliers were committed to meeting the deadline of seeing all households and businesses offered a smart meter by 2020.
Smart Energy GB, which is promoting the roll out of the smart meters, said: "All smart meters mean an end to estimated billing and give people a greater understanding of their energy use.
"Smart meters are also making prepay cheaper and more convenient, bringing the way we pay for our energy up-to-date, enabling customers to top up online or over the phone."
Customers have financed the smart meter programme by paying a levy on their energy bills, while suppliers have frequently blamed the levy for rising costs.
However, the report claimed most of the eventual savings would be made by energy firms, rather than consumers.
"The roll-out is consequently at serious risk of becoming yet another large scale public infrastructure project delivered well over time and budget, and which fails to provide energy customers with a meaningful return on their investment," said Mr Shapps.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44903471
Unsurprisingly the BBC have not mentioned the most significant parts of the report, as they do not help the BBC’s green agenda.
The report comes from the British Infrastructure Group, which is not an official committee, merely a cross party group. (It should also be noted that they are by and large pro-smart meters):
http://www.britishinfrastructuregroup.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/BIG-Not-So-Smart-Full-Report.pdf
These are some of the report’s points that the BBC forgot to tell us:
COSTS
Although the BBC briefly note that customers are having to pay for the cost of smart meters through their energy bills, there is no mention that the cost of the smart meter rollout could now exceed £16.7bn, about £640 per household.
Indeed, the cost could go as high as £20bn.
BENEFITS
It must be noted that the saving of £11 pa is not net of the cost of the rollout. In other words, customers will effectively pay at least £400 for a smart meter, in order to save £11 a year thereafter.
But even this saving of £11 is based on questionable assumptions.
The latest BEIS assessment of costs and benefits, published in 2016, forecast savings of £16.73bn over the lifetime of the smart meters (which I believe is up to 2030).
Half of this amount is for supplier cost savings, mainly the cost of employing meter readers, admin and accounting costs.
However there is already technology in place to achieve these savings – the internet. It is very simple and virtually cost free for customers to enter meter readings via the internet, thus generating automatic billing, and without the need for estimated readings. The savings made by energy companies have already been passed on to customers as a discount on bills, (just the same as signing up for direct debits did a few years ago). This saving cannot be passed on again.
The BEIS even included a “saving” of £1.329bn for “Carbon savings and air quality”. As the MPs note, these will have no meaningful impact on annual energy bills.
The report is also highly dubious about the claimed energy savings, noting:
The MPs are also equally sceptical about the savings of £943m from peak load shifting.
As they state, for ToU tariffs to be effective, there must be a large difference in price between peak and off peak.
In other words, be prepared for stonking price increases if you want energy at “inconvenient” periods of the day.
EU Directives
Readers will already be aware that the EU lies behind the smart meter push.
What is less well known is that EU countries could choose not to roll them out if it was found to be not cost effective.
Germany, Portugal and Belgium and others have saved their citizens a fortune by using this loophole.
To make matters worse, successive UK governments have gold plated EU rules:
Blame it on the Energy Companies
Somehow, despite all of the government coercion, the energy companies seem to get the blame.
A few weeks ago, I received an email from my supplier, EON. They effectively told me that by law I had to have a smart meter, and that if I did not want one I had to ring them .
They also stated that an engineer would call round to install one. I emailed them back and told them in no uncertain terms that I did not want one, and to take me off their email list. To my surprise, they actually responded a few days later, very apologetically and assured me they would not bother me again.
I deeply suspect though that millions will fall for their lies and bullying. Yet it is the government which is ultimately to blame for these disgraceful tactics.
It is successive governments who have foisted upon a largely ignorant public a policy which will cost them billions of pounds.
SIDESTORY
By coincidence today my daughter asked me what a smart meter was. It turned out her new energy supplier was coming to fit one in September.
I told her all of the story behind them, and explained that we were all paying hundreds of pounds each to have them fitted.
She said they told her it would be “free”!
She also explained that, when she signed up for her new deal a few months ago, a smart meter was compulsory.
When I went off on one of my usual rants, she calmly told me that it would be better then keep on having “estimated bills”.
So I asked her how she used to send meter readings to her previous supplier. They sent her an email, and she logged on and sent her readings back by internet, she explained.
Except most of the time she could not be bothered to reply!!
At that point I gave up!!!!
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July 21, 2018 at 04:51PM
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