My sensible meter charged me for a home 270 miles away!
- Experts say the introduction of sensible meters has been badly managed
Smart meters proceed to unfold like a rash throughout the nation as vitality corporations alert households to some great benefits of figuring out how a lot gasoline and electrical energy they use from day after day.
Especially helpful, they are saying, when household budgets are underneath stress like by no means earlier than.
But the new-age meters, now in 60 per cent of houses, will not be with out their faults, and might not be as fail-proof as regulators and fervent smart-meter followers recommend.
A Money Mail investigation discovered that many households with sensible meters are experiencing issues with the gadgets.
These embrace some actually disturbing points — for instance, individuals being billed for vitality utilized by properties tons of of miles away, or meters going rogue, leading to big payments which clients then should struggle to get cancelled.
Dumb tech: Faulty sensible meters have resulted in individuals being billed for vitality utilized by properties tons of of miles away
Battles made worse by the woeful customer support at most vitality suppliers.
Late final yr, Turner Prize-winning artist Sir Grayson Perry was immediately hit with vitality payments totalling £39,000, primarily based on a sensible meter put in on the nation studio he hardly ever makes use of.
Former BBC journalist Jon Sopel additionally acquired a five-figure month-to-month invoice regarding a sensible meter at his residence.
In Sir Grayson’s case, it was solely after he took to social media that his vitality supplier took his grievance severely.
Other issues skilled by Money Mail readers embrace annoying glitches. These embrace sensible meters going dumb after which not offering them with the close to real-time vitality utilization knowledge they had been promised.
In most circumstances, when households complain that their sensible meters are now not working, their suppliers will not be excited by fixing the issue.
This is a results of the suppliers’ fixation with hitting new set up targets set by vitality regulator Ofgem. Targets that, if missed, lead to fines.
Late final yr, six corporations had been fined a mixed £10.8 million for lacking 2022 Ofgem targets.
Several specialists say the introduction of sensible meters, which started 12 years in the past, has been badly managed.
Gordon Hughes, a former senior adviser on vitality and environmental coverage on the World Bank, is a fan of sensible meters in precept.
But he believes that the pc methods required to assist them are solely nearly as good as the standard of the information enter.
A failure to confirm knowledge correctly, Mr Hughes says, was behind the billing errors skilled by Sir Grayson, Mr Sopel, and readers akin to Jilly Bond (see under).
He additionally believes that lots of the sensible meters already put in will not be constructed to final, leading to an ‘accelerating rate of hardware failures’ (meters going dumb).
As for Ofgem, he accuses it of introducing some ‘stupid policies, resulting in energy suppliers having no incentive to fix dumb meters’.
Shock payments: Turner Prize-winning artist Sir Grayson Perry
Mike Foster, chief govt of commerce affiliation the Energy and Utilities Alliance, agrees. He says the introduction of sensible meters has been an abject failure.
‘All consumers are paying for the installation of smart meters through their bills,’ he says (it’s a part of the standing cost).
‘Suppliers have not generated the savings they thought they would as a result of failing to achieve a comprehensive roll out — and most importantly, consumers have not benefited at all from lower bills that the smart-meter future was meant to achieve.’
Among the worst of many smart-meter issues Money Mail readers have reported, is the misbilling issues suffered by six flat house owners at a Victorian property in Ealing, West London.
They had an SSE sensible meter put in early final yr for the lighting of the property’s frequent areas — stairs and exterior.
Monthly payments used to work out at about £20, however when the sensible meter was put in, they started to rise and rise, reaching a staggering £600 a month.
It was solely after they contacted SSE that they had been instructed the rationale why. The readings that SSE acquired from the sensible meter had been for a meter 270 miles away.
In an e mail despatched to at least one resident, SSE stated: ‘The [meter] reads we’re receiving remotely are for a meter up in Sunderland and the system that’s used industry-wide to obtain reads seems to be getting confused with that meter.’
SSE ended the e-mail by saying it was ‘unsure’ how the difficulty can be resolved.
Jilly Bond, an actress and achieved audio guide narrator (she has recorded works akin to Jilly Cooper’s Pandora and Helen Dunmore’s The Siege) owns a flat within the London home with husband Julian Gartside, a speech and language therapist.
She says: ‘We are constantly told that technology cannot go wrong, but as we have seen with the Post Office Horizon scandal, it can fail.
‘Sadly, it is always private individuals who suffer while large institutions hold on to the money mistakenly taken from customers.’
Although the inaccurate billing downside has now been resolved, the sensible meter is now not transmitting readings.
Jilly and the opposite flat house owners contacted the Energy Ombudsman, which seems to be into disputes between suppliers and clients.
In most circumstances, when households complain that their sensible meters are now not working, their suppliers will not be excited by fixing the issue
Its knowledge exhibits that sensible meters are a relentless supply of complaints. It instructed Money Mail that meter mix-ups are a difficulty it repeatedly encounters — particularly on new construct estates.
In late November final yr, the Ombudsman ordered SSE to refund the overpayments.
Although it has to date made a three-figure refund, Jilly says it solely accounts for half of the quantity overcharged.
SSE additionally utilized a £75 ‘goodwill’ credit score to the account for the poor service it has given the flat house owners.
While SSE has confirmed that the sensible meter was incorrectly linked to a provide elsewhere, it has but to supply an evidence as to how this occurred.
Mr Hughes says the issue ‘almost certainly’ resulted from the unsuitable sensible meter identification being put into the system.
Other readers have had points with sensible meters going rogue and producing inaccurate readings.
One, who needs to stay nameless, says her sensible meter has issued ‘absurdly high readings’ because it was put in final yr.
At instances, it has instructed her that her month-to-month consumption of electrical energy is equal to that utilized by two five-bedroom homes mixed — she lives in a one-bedroom flat.
Every time she queries the readings, she is instructed that sensible meters don’t lie. She has resorted to switching off the sensible operate and submitting month-to-month handbook readings as an alternative.
David Jarvis, a retired engineering marketing consultant from Chester, is on his fifth sensible meter in six years.
Shock: Londoner Jilly Bond was billed for an additional property
Most stopped being sensible and went dumb, whereas one inflated his vitality utilization by 20 per cent, leading to compensation from his vitality provider.
He just lately questioned the reliability of his gasoline sensible meter, leading to an impartial inspection carried out by testing agency SGS.
It stated the meter was working inside permitted accuracy limits — that’s, plus or minus two or three per cent of precise utilization.
David accepted this, however was surprised to be taught of such accuracy parameters. He says: ‘I find it incredible that a measuring device used to generate readings which energy bills are based on may not be 100 per cent accurate after all.’
He provides: ‘Maybe smart meters are not among the nation’s best miscarriages of justice — the idea behind them is admirable. But the truth that they can provide out inaccurate readings is relatively alarming.’
Like David, many readers are indignant that their sensible meters now not work, leading to them having to take handbook readings to obtain correct payments.
Some 2.7 million sensible meters are at present classed as ‘dumb’. It is not only that the meters cease being sensible that’s annoying — it’s the reluctance of vitality suppliers to repair them.
David Doig, a retired human sources analyst who lives close to Edinburgh, is a fan of sensible meters, however not once they fail to work.
He had a brand new sensible meter put in in May final yr, measuring each gasoline and electrical energy utilization. Although the electrical energy facet labored from day one, it refused to present readings for the quantity of gasoline used.
British Gas, his vitality provider, initially instructed David that it might begin working inside a matter of days. Then he was promised that the issue can be resolved by September. Today, he’s nonetheless ready for his meter to be 100 per cent sensible.
‘Maybe British Gas should return to using meter readers and issue people like me with quarterly bills,’ quips David.
British Gas insists that it has put in hundreds of thousands of sensible meters ‘without any problems’.
It provides: ‘If anyone has an issue, they can get in touch, and we will work to resolve it.
‘Sometimes, we can fix it remotely, in some cases it may take a bit longer or require a visit from one of our engineers. We will always prioritise those who are vulnerable.’
Barry Gratwicke, who lives simply outdoors Brighton in East Sussex, was among the many first individuals to have a sensible meter put in in his residence.
‘I wanted to do my bit for the country,’ the retired native authorities officer says.
But the meters went dumb as quickly as he determined to change vitality provider to safe a greater deal — a fault frequent with most first-generation sensible meters.
Although he has tried to get a succession of vitality suppliers to show his meters sensible once more, none has stepped up to speed. ‘They don’t need to know,’ he says. ‘They bat the issue away.’
Caroline Abrahams, director at charity Age UK, says sensible meters can present a ‘whole host of benefits’ for vitality clients — together with the power to maintain monitor of vitality utilization. But equally, she says, they’ll trigger loads of issues, particularly if after-care service is missing.
She provides: ‘Energy suppliers must ensure they provide better installation support and fix smart meters swiftly in cases where they have stopped working.
‘If an older person reports a billing mistake, it is crucial that suppliers quickly investigate and correct any anomalies.’
Gillian Cooper, director of vitality at Citizens Advice agrees. She says: ‘Things can sometimes go wrong and when they do, suppliers aren’t getting sensible meters working once more quick sufficient.’
‘If problems persist, then Ofgem must hold firms to account.’
Ofgem instructed Money Mail: ‘When suppliers are at fault, we expect them to do everything in their power to fix them.’
Smart Energy GB is ambassador for sensible meters. It stated the community underpinning sensible meters would maintain evolving, supporting a ‘smooth transition to the next generation of communications services for smart meters’.
- Has your sensible meter billed you for vitality utilized by another person? Have you had billing issues? Email jeff.prestridge @dailymail.co.uk
