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‘Big Green Brother’ Wants ‘Smart Meters’ in Our Homes
The government has unveiled plans for every home in Britain to be equipped with smart meters by the end of 2020.
Smart meters allow suppliers to remotely record customers’ gas and electricity use, and let consumers see how much energy they are using.
Some 26 million electricity and 22 million gas meters will need to be fitted at a cost to consumers of £7bn.
BBC News website: ‘New smart meter plan is unveiled’
Smart meters would also support smart grid technologies capable of turning off electrical appliances such as fridges and washing machines at times of peak energy use and make it easier to manage the electric car recharging infrastructure that is likely to be required if the government’s plans for increased use of electric vehicles prove successful.
businessGreen.com: ‘Government sets 2020 goal for smart meter rollout’
Sounds intrusive and even dictatorial to me….how will Big Brother know that I’m using a washing machine, for instance?
There is a consultation (it applies to gas and electricity supply; and for mainland Britain only).
This implies the adoption of ‘time of use tariffs’ so may offer scope for paying more not less? “Demand management” and “Remote disablement of supply” sound rather ominous.
One web forum wondered if this might pave the way for personal carbon taxes (carbon communism). The government wants a new central body to monitor everyone’s energy use.
Smart meters have been considered by the government since at least 2006, but have recently been agreed at EU level as part of an energy legislation package. The latter warns of the need for ‘adequate carbon prices’, implying that what we pay for energy is too low (although the spin on smart meters is the potential for lower bills all round…£100 million net saving for consumers).
europa.eu Rapid – Press Release: ‘Q&A on the European Parliament’s vote on the Third Internal Energy Market Legislative Package’
Don’t forget that the UK Energy Research Centre recently suggested that a carbon price signal of £200 a tonne, 15 times the present level, is needed if we are to reach the Government’s target of an 80 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050….
I’ll be responding to the ‘consultation’ – remote meter reading is one thing, but it may be a Trojan Horse for handing remote control of your energy use to ‘Big Green Brother’ and the implementation of personal carbon allowances. Remember that the UK contributes less than 2% to global man-made aerial plant food gas (CO2). We aren’t short of energy, but we aren’t building the necessary viable energy infrastructure due to carbon-climate-claptrap. ‘Environmentalists’ will say they are in favour of a particular technology, knowing full well that it is currently impractical, such as electric cars or wind turbines. If it ever becomes practical, they then oppose it. They are basically opposed to any energy use, as this enables economic development, which they want to prevent.
May 16th, 2009 at 4:46 am
Dot Com boom, Green Boom just later.
Y2K bug, hype and nothing happened
When do they ever learn?
May 19th, 2009 at 3:07 am
And this is the third consultation. They really have no idea of the impact/complexity of doing this. In fact whilst smart meters are one of the key wins on McKinsey’s marginal cost abatement curves, if you look at the realities for the UK market there are many technical/ commercial problems including:
1) stranded assets – the consultation document shrugs its shoulders to the £600M or so hit the firms will take.
2) speed of roll-out – 10 years (to 2020) is twice the current replacement rate so it’ll need twice as many fitters for the period and then whammy, there’ll be no need for people to do the job from 2020 onwards (apart from a skeleton crew).
3) Evidence of impact – other studies show that even with data on usage many people don’t have the time or inclination to reduce consumption. 100% of the additional smart meter cost is therefore wasted.
4) Most savings come from technology change – low energy bulbs, lagging etc Once these have been installed the smart meter won’t help to change consumption.
5) Energy for heating depends on the weather – so having a ‘smart’ comparison of consumption for this April compared with last April does not help, without degree days or other simple metrics that are very local.
6) The meter functionality for the ability to export energy to the grid (i.e. to measure both ways) is for the rare consumer who wants to generate own electricity (and few do, even fewer export) and yet this adds cost to all of the meters to be installed.
7) gas and electricity are not always taken as dual fuels – the data from the gas meter has to piggyback on the electric meters power to get back, causing potential complications for data protection and inter-firm personal data transfer.
There are many other flaws in the government’s thinking which is not joined up enough to tackle this issue There’s even a lack of clarity of whether a visual health and safety check of the gas meter by the reader will be still required. If so, the key cash ‘benefit’ of smart meters – no reading costs, won’t be fully realised – you’ll have a meter reader coming round to check the meter, halving the cash benefits side, for example.
May 19th, 2009 at 7:34 am
A new totalitarianism is on the march…
May 22nd, 2009 at 5:46 am
Luke & Andrew—– I hate to say your right
July 29th, 2009 at 9:43 am
Re: Andrew
watched the sci-fi/fantasy film – ‘Equilibrium’ the other day. You are all carbon-offenders (sense-offenders) and need to be neutralized for the benefit and SAFETY of the state
December 27th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
Well we now have it in Australia! Of course electricity prices have gone up, and of course we have to pay for these meters. Heaven help us when carbon emision tax comes in, which it will one way or another.
December 28th, 2009 at 10:20 am
This is all part of Chairman KRudd of the Single World Government’s plan, to keep us all in place at the maximum tax to us all. KRudd is a tyrant, a dictator, an advocate for Chinese communism (check out his website), he is guilty of treason against the Australian people and our constitution. But, mind you, he is not much different to the ego driven politicians on both sides of the political arena, who run or rather run-down this country. Australians have been far to lax is sitting back and letting abuse of power reign over us and it is only through People Power can we reinstate our democracy into the hands of honest and skilled Australians. Read the book Aussies wanna KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) available from http://www.aussieswannakiss.com and sign the petition to change our political system. Make sure your friends and particularly your kids are well informed about what is happening, because it is indifference to politics and the free lunches of KRudd that will divide this nation.
Rachel Emmes
December 28th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
And guess what! Big brother has already infiltrated many parts of Australia! The big wigs in electricity companys can turn on and off our electric hot water whenever they want!! They’re already telling us to keep it to four minutes… soon the shower police will be flicking it to cold whenever they want! Next it will be mind control!
December 28th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
if your old meter goes phtt as mine did in aus, in victoria at least you get a smart meter want it or not. amazingly I have had 2 as the first one quadrupled my iusual bill and yet power corp denied error..hmm but they did replace it, and eventually credited me, but 300 extra on a pension?
for the real down and dirty on smart meters see the IBM website, theres a lot of info and none of it good as far as consumers are concerned.
they say..they want to be able to power down all over if theres a grid issue. hmph! the real big grid fail in usa a few years back is a classic example of why NOT to interlink! and I did read it was more a planned fail than a fault.
rachael thanks or the above link:-) off to look and sign!
December 30th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
My wife and myself have gone to the effort of installing 10 Solar panel( 1.7 Kvh) and replacing all bulbs as well as replacing our Hot water system with a eco-inverter Heat Pump ( Night Tariff) to save power and reduce costs.
These changes have been made using various Rebates from the Australian Federal( $8000) and State Govt’s and our Local Govt( Brisbane City Council)this would not have been possible without these rebates due to costs.( Water Tanks also installed.)
However we are now exporting power to the grid and our hourly costs are down to between 2 cents and 20cnts per Kilowatt hour, when the Airconditioner is operating which is rarely.
Our first power bill after Solar Panel installation was down from $317Au to $177 and we exported $116 into the Grid of course we had to pay GST on that, and that is only since the 1st of Nov 2009.
Our system feeds the home first then surplus to the grid.
Our total outlay is approximately between $Eight Thousand and Nine Thousand.9 (Panels 25 year Warranty)
Well worth the effort, adds value to home and more Eco Friendly
And by the way Climate Change has been happening since the beginning of Time.
December 31st, 2009 at 12:10 am
Maarten: Excellent – if it works and is cost effective, then go for it!
March 30th, 2010 at 12:05 am
2020 they say…not very appealing but still great news regarding our government and they concern for the environment. Hopefully it will be a law thing as we can no longer give the right to people to choose wether they need it or not. Maybe having the whole of Britain saving together energy, maybe a big reduction in out energy bills will be seen. Think about it, better control of your energy consumption more money you save, the more money you save, the higher the buying power…etc. Thanks for the post, will recommend it