Millions of energy users in Britain are about to get a new metering system – smart meters – technology which has been rejected by Germany and found not to be not cost-effective by other nations.
Source: Will smart meters be worth the money? – BBC News
You can hear the Moneybox programme on smart meters here.
In the programme, the University of Grenwich’s Professor Stephen Thomas zeroes in on an inconvient Smart Meter truth — that there is no intellectual case for Smart Meters unless you factor in the plan to put people on Time of Use tariffs — designed to serve the energy industry, not consumers.
Otherwise, Smart Meters are just not needed, argues Prof. Thomas — since far cheaper (and safer) in-home energy monitors that keep customer data exclusively in the hands of customers would give them any info they seek about usage. With Smart Meters, though, that customer usage data is constantly transmitted wirelessly into the hands of 3rd parties — to the significant benefit of energy firms who use and get to sell that data of yours.
A big question we have upon having listened to the programme is this:
Why is Smart Energy GB continuing to mislead customers about the voluntary nature of smart meters, whilst simultaneously claiming to be doing the opposite?
