Good grief people surely you "intelligent" people have realised that smart meters are the biggest scam after equity release and catalytic converters (there are other money making scams). The ONLY reason utility companies are pushing smart meters and water meters is to scam more money from the consumer.
That's the fear that a group of people appear to have, but I think one has to question whether whether it is 'the others' or that group which is failing to apply "intelligence".
If by "to scam more money from the consumer", you think that smart meters will in some way facilitate suppliers getting 'more money than they need to' from consumers (i.e. make excessive profits), then regulation is not going to be allowed to happen, even with a privatised utility industry..
The main (probably essentially the only) reason why utility companies are pushing 'smart meters' is that they are being forced to try to meet government targets, and the reason government is pushing for those targets is that they believe (rightly or wrongly, probably the latter) that such meters will result in a reduction in energy usage by consumers - hence
lower bills for consumers than if they did not have smart meters (introduction of smart meters will not change the underlying wholesale price of energy).
Smart meters, in their present and envisaged forms, cannot and will not, per se, result in money being 'scammed' from consumers. If the supply/demand situation changes such that it becomes necessary to charge different prices at different times of day (in an attempt to persuade people to change their usage patterns, and therefore help to avoid losing their supply completely at times), then that will probably have to be tried -0 but that's nothing directly to do with 'smart meters'. As I recently wrote, I have a
non-smart meter which would allow electricity price to be priced differently for a dozen or so time periods within the day.
Most of the 'big brotherish' things that people seem to fear most cannot be achieved by 'smart' meters - they would require 'smart appliances' and/or some sort of 'smart CUs' - and they are not going to appear and be widely deployed for very many decades (if ever). Even if they ever do come, they will be attempts to preserve energy supplies, by reducing usage and therefore reducing bills - so it's far from clear in what sense that would qualify as a 'scam'
I'm fairly sure that legislation will come out soon to make it law that every house is fitted with smart meters and water meters.
That probably will happen but, as above, it's because the government believe (I strongly suspect wrongly) that smart meters will appreciably reduce energy usage (with the potential to reduce energy bills), not as a means of increasing the profits of energy suppliers (why on earth would government want to do that?).
I would say that the only major way in which consumers will suffer (financially) in the short/medium term is by (unavoidably) having to pay for the deployment of smart meters (and associated infrastructure) - which, as above, is happening because government believe (probably mistakenly) that it will markedly reduce energy consumption. Applying "intelligence" to the issue, I don't see any other way in which 'smart' meters will disadvantage consumers in the short-/medium term (if ever).
In passing, as for water meters being a 'scam', when I had mine installed, it resulted in dramatic reduction in my bills, which has persisted. It would presumably only result in appreciable increases in bills for those who use excessive amounts of water (which could be regarded as 'anti-social' and 'environmentally unfriendly')
Kind Regards, John