Smart meters are on the march. One of them will be coming your way fairly soon.

I don't pretend to be an expert, but this is what I think is correct.

The order to install them is an EU directive.
Germany refused to install them because of the high cost.
The UK has agreed to install 56 million at an estimated cost of £14 Billion.
The Government says we shall save money because we shall see what various appliances are costing.
The adverts on TV suggest that the benefit is measurement rather than estimate. I don't understand this because surely all users have a measurement at some stage?
How does the system work today? For example, I read my meter and email the reading. Not a problem.
So what are the benefits of smart meters?

Moving on from the readings, what are the issues?

There is much concern about the security, eg hacking.
Smart meters may not work if you switch supplier. I know this is the case.
I have read that some meters lose the plot and bills increase by thousands of pounds.
The meter reveals whether you are in or on holiday, indirectly of course.

It is about load balancing the power supply that they know will be inadequate in the future if the switch to renewables continues.

They can either control your usage by active control, or market control i.e. make electricity more expensive depending on conditions.

This is also the reason (many people fail to understand) why they reduced the max power of vacuum cleaners etc, Just to make the overall base load requirements lower.

They will make the consumer fit the market, not the other way around. All to do with retiring old power stations etc.

What about the darker, more speculative uses of smart meters?

It is clear that renewable energy is unreliable and the authorities will want to control demand.
We have read that consumer white goods will be fitted with chips that will turn down power consumption when the power frequency drops.
White goods will have the ability to communicate with other gadgets (and probably with smart meters?)
What is not installed today can be fixed with a firmware update without our knowledge.
Will smart meters control our consumption levels and even if we get power at all?
Will they control the consumption of individual appliances within our homes?
Is this scary rubbish or on the way?
Are we sleepwalking towards green control?
What should we do about it?

Conclusion

I don't know all the questions, let alone the answers but I do feel that we are part of the way down that road already and should, as a minimum, debate what is definite and happening, what is likely to happen and how we feel about it.

Jiminy Cricket - Just for info, my first part ran out of allowed capacity so I had to add the rest as a separate comment. Your reply to the first bit had appeared by then.

Not a problem and thanks for your contribution. I hope there are many more. I believe that low cost, plentiful energy is an essential part of achieving economic growth, health and prosperity.

The current direction of travel is to raise costs, restrict available energy and all to solve a non-problem.

Yes, the lash of progressive government regulation does smart.
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Schrodinger's Cat: "The current direction of travel is to raise costs, restrict available energy and all to solve a non-problem."

Indeed it is:

Craig Morris (@PPchef) is the lead author of German Energy Transition. He directs Petite Planète and writes every workday for Renewables International. He is co-author of Energy Democracy, the first history of Germany’s Energiewende. This is his take on things:

"High energy prices are good in that they incentivize conservation and efficiency. The poor need to be protected from these high prices to some extent, but that falls in the domain of social policy. Low energy prices should not be the goal of energy policy.”

"High energy prices are good in that they incentivize conservation and efficiency. The poor need to be protected from these high prices to some extent, but that falls in the domain of social policy. Low energy prices should not be the goal of energy policy.”

Mar 13, 2017 at 8:49 PM | Mark Hodgson

Mark Hodgson, thank you for finding that quote. Those who write and believe that type of pompous and arrogant drivel, have no understanding of why they are detested.

Blaming fuel-poverty deaths in the UK on failed "socal policy", when they have been caused by failed Climate-Science Dictated Politics, is a grotesque shrug of callous indifference. Meanwhile, Underdeveloped Countries fail to develop because those in need, are deprived of reliable power, with the backing of the UN and World Bank.

Anti-Social Democracy at it's worst, and most hypocritical, but it is favoured by Progressives.

We recently changed fuel suppliers, and the new suppliers tried to push a smart meter at us. However, when I said we didn't want one, they backed off readily enough, which was mildly encouraging. But I suspect the day is coming when, if you want to change suppliers, it will be a condition of moving to your new supplier that they require you to take a smart meter.

If that day comes, what do we do? Cave in and accept the inevitable in order, for now, to save a little bit of money on our energy bills? Or refuse, and stay saddled with our currently uncompetitive supplier?

It's about rationing, once we get smart meters we can be allocated a number of kWh per person in the home. That will allow us to reduce our CO2 emissions, which will be A GOOD THING. Make no mistake about it environmentalists are ruthless, heartless bastards, who will cheerfully inflict pain and death on fellow human beings to save the planet.

Please don't let this happen; these are evil. In Ontario these were forced down our throat ( we're too polite to fight back). It is about control; they ask, for now; if we will let them adjust our usage should it become necessary! Many have seen huge unexplainable increases in usage and it takes years to fight the bad readings; power gets cut off if you don't pay up. We garbaged millions of good , accurate meters for nothing. They were supposed to save power and prevent the building of more expensive power plants ie. nuclear ; but now we have to pay others to take the excess power on sunny and or windy days that we pay 10 to 20 times the normal cost. Fight as hard as you can and you will save millions. Many states and counties in the US have banned them.

Ofgem has outlined the exponential challenge of regulating a smart energy market over which it would currently have limited jurisdiction.

In a new position paper, the energy regulator floats concerns around lack of consumer engagement with smart meters, vast swathes of personal data being collected by suppliers and non-regulated entities and whether suppliers might try to pick only ‘desirable’ customers based upon that data. That kind of profiling and segmentation could leave even more customers paying more than is necessary for their energy, it noted.

The regulator said such developments may require it to change supply license rules.

The Future Insights paper also outlines the challenge of engaging consumers that in the main show little interest in energy.

How to lose friends and alienate people.

May 3, 2017 at 9:58 PM | stewgreen

"As SMART as a Climate Scientist" really ought to pass into the English Language, to describe something that is an uncontrollable, dangerous, untrustworthy and unreliable con.

Smart meters have all sorts of snazzy uses. They can help sharing the electricity in times of scarcity, forgetting your instant readings and bills at your convenience, or they can be used to ration your electricity use. if I was a crazy Greenie, I might have the idea that we could easily cut carbon emissions by allowing a per person use of electricity in each household and if you exceed your ration you would pay a massive excess for the electricity used over the top of your ration. The excess payment would be used to put more subsidies into renewable energy. But I'm not a crazy Greenie so I haven't thought of it.