Customers Hit With Shock Bills of Tens of Thousands of Pounds as Four Million Smart Meters Stop Working Properly
Households are being hit with shock energy bills of as much as tens of thousands of pounds as four million smart meters are not working properly. The Telegraph has more.
The number of ‘dumb’ smart meters is up from a previous estimate of 2.7 million, following revisions to official statistics released by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) published last week.
Bill payers have complained of feeling “terrified” by the devices after receiving shock meter readings putting them thousands of pounds in debt.
Lord Callanan, the Minister for Energy Efficiency and Green Finance, said he was “deeply concerned” about the figures in a letter to the energy watchdog on Thursday.
He called on Ofgem to enforce legal requirements for suppliers to ensure that smart meters are working properly.
He said: “The scale of some suppliers’ underperformance in optimising their operation metering estate over a period of time shows these steps may not have been taken universally,” adding “I am deeply concerned about this”.
Broken smart meters do not provide consumers with an accurate reflection of how much energy they have used and can lead to incorrect charges appearing on plug-in displays.
Problems with smart meters have affected high-profile consumers. In December, artist Grayson Perry complained of a £39,000 bill he received on a smart meter. In the same month, broadcaster Jon Sopel revealed his device handed him a £19,274 bill.
Estimates by the National Audit Office (NAO) put the number of faulty smart meters in Britain at just under three million last June. DESNZ has now said that the actual figure in June was 4.31 million – far higher than reported at the time.
Worth reading in full.
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That’s right, blame the technology. These consumers are CRIMINALS, stealing electricity to run cannabis farms and bitcoin mines, or export power to Putin, and they should all be banged up like those crooked postmasters. In fact they probably are the crooked postmasters up to their next scam.
I am a big fan of your humour!
😄😄
Just like the vax, people jumped in feet first as they rushed to the front of the queue. They weren’t really sure of the details, but they knew they wanted to be first.
Perhaps it was virtue signalling or perhaps they really believed that the meter would magically save them money and they wouldn’t even have to think about it. Dooh!
Another case of act in haste repent at leisure.
Yeah but the smart meters have nice little screens with flashy things and people love those! And you can connect it to your smartphone! And you can turn on your heating from anywhere. How convenient! What’s not to like?!
The bit about Having to call tech-support because the smartmeter suddenly stopped working/ started chasing underage girls from the neighbourhood only to be told to keep rebooting it until the problem has gone away on its own. If in doubt, always avoid computerized appliances which need internet access to function.
😬😱🤕
A red blooded Smart Meter then!
They can tell when you are in or out of the house, good to know if you have a body to berry.
The energy rationing devices are not functioning properly. —Oh dear. Remember that smart meter (when it works properly) will prevent you from being “overbilled”. In other worlds paying for electricity based on an estimate of what you use rather than what you actually have used. —–That is where the good news ends though. People need to realise what the real purpose of the smart meter is. Do people who get a smart meter really think that government are going to all this trouble and expense (20 billion approx) for their benefit, so they maybe get a more accurate bill? Because remember you will still have to pay for all the electricity you actually use whether you pay for it before it is due or not. The smart meter is just another tool in the Sustainable Development toolbox. You cannot treat it in isolation. It is part of the same Green package like turbines, solar panels, heat pumps and electric cars. ——The whole idea is that we all must use less energy because of Malthusian fears that there are more and more people in the world using up finite resources. The people who must use less energy first in the world… Read more »
I dunno, I think it was just tech for the sake of it. Some companies managed to convince the idiotic MPs their smart meter boondoggles were good and necessary – oh and look they will Save Da Planet! Honest!
The whole rollout exposed far too much ineptitude to think this was all a master plan of Masterminds.
It’s another case of grifters. Not a patch on Elon Musk, but grifters nevertheless.
“Tech for the sake of it”?——–Sorry. Net Zero is a master plan and it all emanates from the UN Sustainable Development politics, which all our politicians support.—–You are letting our UN lackey politicians off lightly if you are going to try and suggest that they are only bunglers making a pigs ear of things. ——Just as they are not making a pigs ear of stopping the small boats. They are deliberately not stopping them, because they have signed up to International and human rights agreements. So too they are signed up to International climate agreements like the Paris Accord. They maybe bunglers but the political class are all fully onboard with the climate and energy politics as laid out by the UN directives, and the smart meter is just another cog in the wheel.
The political class (including those populating UN, WHO, Gates Foundation et al) may well be on board. But they are inept. They are inept at making anything work. They love to show virtue and look busy. They fall for conmen like Elon Musk, Albert Bourla et al. And then we pay for it. But they never manage to engineer our servitude. Regular folk do it to themselves.
I am sorry. I don’t wish ever to be rude to people on here, but I have to tell you that I have not a clue what you are talking about or what point you are trying to make. —-NET ZERO is the law. We are all going to suffer a huge fall in living standards as a result, and yet you seem to be saying this is happening because the political class are “inept”. You are saying that they are just making a “mistake”. ——–Then you say they cannot “engineer our servitude”. I am sorry but that is exactly what they are doing. They are getting rid of coal and gas and fobbing us off with wind. They are getting rid of petrol and diesel and forcing us into EV’s. The are making it very expensive to afford to fly anywhere with carbon taxes, they are closing down cities and towns to our vehicles and trying to force us onto busses and bicycles. When are people going to wake up to the fact that this is not just “ineptitude”. It is deliberate and well organised United Nations Politics being imposed on us with the full approval of our own… Read more »
They may be inept ( and we pay for that ineptness) but for now they appear to mostly be getting their way. Let us hope that in this year of an unprecedented number of global general elections people sweep aside the establishment parties that have such contempt for their electorates.
And they gaslight us with Rwanda that can only take so many at a time, yet is not as safe as we are being told anyway. Smoke & mirrors from the invertebrate PM, even when he talks he sounds like he’s taking the piss like a used car salesman that just sold you a banger.
I think you’re right about that. “It’s an IoT device!” is very likely sufficient to convince people that they must have it. That’s exactly the same as everyone and his dog nowadays having an “app” which doesn’t really do anything execept enable him to do business as usual with a higher marginal cost. But it’s “an app!” We must have one! Everyone else has one, too!
The tech allowed the energy companies to make redundant thousands of meter readers up and down the country saving them a hefty wage bill.
On that point, I don’t have a smart meter and I can’t remember the last time a meter reader came to check if my readings that I submit are accurate. Are they bothered if the reading are not accurate so long as my payments are hovering around the average energy cost?
Utter ineptitude.
I am not a fan of smart meters, for the single reason that allowing the provider to decide how much I have used is just so obviously wrong. Separation of Powers and all that. I never allowed them to install the stupid thing in our house in Leeds.
I suspect the problems are in large part down to the dodgy data connection, which piggybacks the cellular infrastructure. And many smart meters are in cellars, behind thick stone walls, under insulated floors etc. Who could possibly have predicted… 🤣
Here in France, the Linky meter transmits the info along… wait for it… THE ELECTRICITY CABLES THEMSELVES! Power Line Communication (PLC). Old, tested, technology.
Still, Montesquieu would not be proud.
On a general note, there really is no replacement for learning how to make sure your energy bill is correct. Get a clamp meter, a multimeter. Learn how to measure current and voltage. Learn the formulae.
Help yourself. No one else cares about you.
I ould have no difficulty if the purpose and capability as just to transmit usage for billing but we know it is for THEM to control US.
Maybe. But they had a fantastic opportunity to roll out vaccine passports, remember? Almost the entire western world was afraid and onboard – nay, begging for the “protection” of a fancy Android App. And even they didn’t work (and were easy to sabotage, drawing a little black dot on a few QR codes was all it took for the bored and stupid functionaries to shrug and leave you alone).
So where are the vaccine passports?
And where are THEY now, hm? Enjoying their yachts and supermodels while cooking up their next scam, that’s where THEY are.
I know I sound confident, but I am hoping I am right. I know there are some seriously nasty individuals, but most are just corrupt and/or lazy.
Our meter was fitted in 1972 and its staying where it is until it breaks! I opted out of the smart meter push, a lot of people I’ve spoken to didn’t even know that you could!
It’s another example of technology that’s just not as good as it says on the tin
I opted out of it too, and I wasn’t even sure why at the time, but I’m now glad I did.
Dinger and Valerie——-I am not having one either, but not just because they maybe be faulty, but because I know what they are really for —Energy Rationing. —-When you increasingly rely on the weather for energy you have no control over the supply. Wind and sun cannot provide base load, which is the least amount of energy required at the busiest time. That is why the smart meter will charge more at busy time (4-10 pm) to try and discourage use. —–I have had some naive people say to me but energy will be cheaper during the night. —For gods sake we don’t cook dinner, watch the telly and go on our computers at 3 in the morning.
Spot on👍
Energy won’t be cheaper when sufficient people have bought EVs and want to charge them all night.
Yes fair point. But the smart meter is still not for our benefit and that is the main point. It is there to control energy use as we increasingly rely on unreliable wind for our energy.
And people are quick to forget that the Tories had legislation to force households to adopt SMs. Something Lee Anderson regarded and ‘not true’.
EON pay no attention to refusals and have no opt out option.
Nor does Octopus
My meter was fitted around the same time. Sadly, I fear energy companies will be strong armed by government to declare meters over 50 years old as being unreliable and thus in need of replacement. And since nobody makes the traditional meter only a new contraption with a built-in smart meter is available as per all new housing.
Is this a follow-on from yesterday’s story about being charged extra through your smart meter at times of high system load? Grayson must’ve been washing a ton of frocks at teatime… /sarc
Off – T.
Following on from my post last night that confirmed Japan is banning MRNA injections here is a very disturbing article on the implications of receiving blood from contaminated ie “vaccinated” persons. This is hardly a surprise to most of us here. A no shit Sherlock revelation.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/blood-from-the-vaxxed-may-not-be-safe-for-transfusions-say-researchers/
Is Japan really banning MRNA vaccines or are a group of Japanese politicians lobbying for them being banned? There appear to be mixed reports.
‘Smart meters’ are yet another example of the centralization and technocracy which are contributing so much to the destruction of western civilization.
Part of the Sustainable Development package —Yes.——–Smart Metres cannot be viewed in isolation from other “Green” technologies. They are another part of the drive to reduce consumption and energy use.
The people who created the software were probably told that it should employ machine learning to predict the effects of climate change. It got then loaed onto smart meters because the salesreps of the company producing them really couldn’t see the point of creating a new computer program when they already had one. It’s also wrong to describe these smart meters as broken. The proper term is 95% reliable, ie, about one in twenty produces numbers which have absolutely no co- or other relation to actual energy use.
NB: Someone who doesn’t believe that that’s exactly how the software industry works obviously doesn’t know it.
It would be disastrous if criminal elements were at hand to sabotage and destroy all the essential hi tec digital stuff necessary for the New World Order.
Wouldn’t it just.
I opted out of one as we live in an apartment and the meter cupboard is about 50 meters away, on the off chance that it would give me a benefit of meter readings and the bells and whistles, but the communications don’t work to my apartment!
Anyway, one piece of good news is that the 4 million that don’t work are a sunk cost that the providers will have been paid to install, but now have to fix. They’ll be reluctant to do this, as they’ll be trying to reach their targets for new meters.
Be aware, if you’re one of the 4 million, although they’re dumb, I’m sure thru can still switch off your supply!
Maybe if people read their meters, say once a week, and kept a record, it would be easier to dispute discrepancies. There are even apps to help with this.
I do it once a month and send the readings in electronically. Takes 5 minutes tops. Doddle
Same here. Both gas and electric. The firm still manages to borrow a few pounds for zero interest on a monthly direct debit though!
This is anothe rPost Office scandal waiting to erupt.
I have been pressured and intimidated by EON who ant me to install a “smart” meter. I do not ant one, for obvious reasons.
They claim non-smart ones are no longer available yet in most of the world that is what is used.
Part of me despises the people who were daft enough to fall for something just because it had the word ‘smart’ in front of it. As if the smartness was ever going to be applied in your favour. If I was a school teacher these days the main course I would teach would be how to survive in a predatory world of fifth dimensional warfare. Because we are woefully unequipped. It is the unfortunate nature of our standing as humans that we are easily bested by someone who might just be slightly more intelligent or devious than us. This is the realm of human affairs and so it behoves those who know a lot better to become completely acquainted with the facts regarding the predators and to make this common knowledge. We are lucky to have so many people who are doing this.