By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Magness
Households have been saddled with three million faulty smart meters in a botched roll-out that is ballooning over budget, a report reveals today.
Nearly one in 10 smart energy meters installed in UK homes are not working properly and more than one in three homeowners have reported problems, the National Audit Office found.
It comes as the roll-out, which was supposed to have seen a smart meter installed in every home by 2020, is now forecast to cost more than £13.5bn.
Smart meters are replacing traditional gas and electric meters and send automatic readings to energy suppliers. Display screens also provide homeowners with real-time information about how much they are spending on power.
The Government is lagging far behind its latest 2025 target of putting smart meters in 80pc of homes, with 57pc of households having had one installed by March this year, according to data from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero detailed in the report.
Suppliers told the NAO that they are finding it increasingly difficult to persuade customers to accept smart meters and that they had already plucked all the “low hanging fruit” of households who are willing to install the meters.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/homes-stuck-with-3m-faulty-smart-meters/
The Telegraph report includes the usual BS from the smart meter lobby:
Dan Brooke, of Smart Energy GB, said: “The report identifies areas for improvement, but also highlights that past challenges have been largely overcome and that smart meters are helping people to reduce their energy use and save more money than ever before.”
The answer is simple, Mr Brooke – drop the pressure on energy suppliers to instal them, let people decide for themselves whether they want them, and make the ones who do pay the full cost, instead of landing everybody with a bill of £500. If they are so good and save so much money, people will rush to pay for one.
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
June 14, 2023 at 08:53AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 