A recent report published by the Science and Technology Committee admitted that the Government is ‘not being clear on the benefits of smart meters’, so let’s see if we can clear things up for you.
A smart meter records live data on your energy usage and passes it on to your provider, meaning that all of your bills are guaranteed to be accurate, and not based on estimates.
They also come with a digital in home display, or IHD, that allows you to monitor your own usage in real time. This information can be useful in many ways – first and foremost, you can adjust your usage accordingly if you find that you’re using a particularly large amount at a particular time regularly.
Secondly, having completely up to date information on how much you’re using and how much you’re spending allows you to make much more informed decisions than you otherwise would when it comes to switching supplier. You’ll have access to all of the information you need to work out exactly where you could be saving money.
By the same token, increased roll out of smart meters allows for increased roll out of innovative, tailored tariffs, based around what you actually use.
A smart meter could already, for example, help you work if you’d be better off on an economy 7 tariff – that is, one with which you pay less per unit for your energy at night than during the day.
Smart meters are currently being rolled out by certain suppliers, with Smart Energy GB, an body formed to promote their use, aiming to have one in every UK home by 2020. Having a smart meter installed won’t cost you a penny – so what’s the catch?
Part of the problem is that smart meters are not one-size-fits-all. A smart meter provided by one energy company might not work with another provider, meaning that if you switch, you might lose some or all of the meter’s functionality.
Another issue that has been raised is to do with privacy and the security of customers’ data. However, the Science and Technology Committee’s report assured that: “Our interaction with GCHQ gives us confidence that security—one of these concerns—is being taken seriously,” adding that “It is important that consumers have confidence in this system, and the way that the Government communicates on this point requires further reflection”.
