Cost of running a smart meter

[SUNRAY]

Just been chatting to a friend and the concurrent topic of smartmeters cropped up.

"Don't talk to me about f****** smart meters he says."

He has a plot of land, let's call it a farm as a description. One of the outbuildings was rented out to a tenant who had his own supply and meter fitted. When he moved out I reverted the CU to the original 32A feed from the main house and all was well for several years.

One day a van turned up with paperwork to install 3 smartmeters (there are 3 on site). Despite seeing the unused meter and the property owner not signing anything he insisted on replacing it (without any loadside tails at request of property owner).

Eversince they have been billing 'the occupier' with an estimated bill equivalent to the previous tenants useage and in addition his own estimated usage has increased by the same amount. The 3rd meter on site is working correctly.

Other than the apparent failure to remotely read the meters and failure to understand that one meter is redundant and not registered to any customer it has actually clocked up >20KWh in 2 years.

FWIW all 3 meters are in a glass fibre pillar so no excuse for one working and not the others.

 

[SUNRAY]

Just had a follow-up call with himand he mentioned his neighbours situation, repeated calls from BG to have SM fitted, eventually he relented, when fitter turned up He couldn't get it in the meter box because the cutout was in the wrong place and he's still getting the calls from BG.

 

[morqthana]

Isn't that more of a dumb bureaucracy problem rather than a smart meter one?

 

[SUNRAY]

Isn't that more of a dumb bureaucracy problem rather than a smart meter one?

What is, the fact that unused meter is being billed for it or the neighbours situation?

 

[ericmark]

Where I volunteer we have a building which was start up units, with around 4 meters, the cost to remove = cost of standing charge for around 15 years.

So we have not had the supplies removed. Once one has a supply fitted it seems it costs to have it removed.

Nothing to do with smart meters.

Personally I dodn't think the supplies comply, as they are TN-C-S all in same metal framed building. So the PEN could be overloaded.

 

[morqthana]

What is, the fact that unused meter is being billed for it or the neighbours situation?

Both

 

[SUNRAY]

The silly thing is for several years after the tenant moved out it was not being billed (or used). I don't know but I assume it was being read when the others were and suddenly they are demanding money for it when the SM goes in.

Where I volunteer we have a building which was start up units, with around 4 meters, the cost to remove = cost of standing charge for around 15 years.

So we have not had the supplies removed. Once one has a supply fitted it seems it costs to have it removed.

Nothing to do with smart meters.

When the account holder moves out, no one has to take responsibility for it, obviously the energy supplier would like to see a meter rental but if no-one takes it on then so be it. When we have tenants move out it is in their interest to inform supplier, we or the agent informs the supplier the property is empty and pass on any available forwarding address. That is an end to it until a new tenant moves in. One of my properties was empty for 3-4 months for various reasons and the energy used during decorating and other works in that time was never billed and it never occurred to me to pay for it. It can go wrong though as I have had bailiffs come to my home expecting to recover debts including a £9K telephone bill.

 

[ericmark]

I do not know what the rules are, likely different for commercial and domestic, and likely a farm is considered commercial, however it has nothing to do with being a smart meter, it is simply the electric company has been made aware of the supply.

Clearly if you have not signed a contract to have electric supplied, then nothing to do with you, however often it is part of the contract when buying a premises that the services be it water, sewage, gas, electric, are part of that contract. There can be some odd situations, I remember finding a contractor ripping up my father-in-laws drive, he was going to lay a new drive, father-in-law had early stages of dementia so bother-in-law had power of attorney and the house had already been transferred to the children, so my father-in-law did not have the authority to commission the work. We did after some talk get the drive done, but my point is for a supply to be removed or installed it needs the owner or tenant or other ordering the work to have the authority to do so.

Be have seen so many times where the required paperwork was never completed, wayleave agreement for example. It gets rather complex, and it would take some careful reading to work out what is permitted.

Basic idea is if a company installs a supply which is expected to be used for 100 years, and then after 2 years the land owner changes their mind, and says sorry don't want the supply, the supply company can charge to have it removed. But of course if the supply was from day one designed to be temporary then the removal cost would have been included in the supply charge. But we have no idea what the contract was, so we have no way of knowing what charges can be made.

 

[ebee]

I would think tgat for a charge to be made then some evidence of the contract should be shown.if it got as far as court a Judge would want tgem to prove their case.

 

[Old Salt]

There could be a standing charge element, in the bill for the meter fitted, but not using any power. He needs to write to his supplier explaining the problem and then inform the ombudsman if the situation is not rectified. Suppliers do not like ofgem complaints.

 

[morqthana]

Yeah - fearsome beast, the ofgem - well known for savaging delinquent gas & electricity companies.

 

[SUNRAY]

Having another thread running about smart meters prompted me to mention them when speaking to this friend for an update.
To recap there is a 3ph head and 3 1ph SMs one is my friends (which also feeds a private meter for a tenant), one is another tenants responsibility and the 3rd has only a switched fuse attached to it. He reads his SM and his private meter every week. While in the cabinet he reads the spare meter which is merrily clocking up ~90Wh per week, says he gets a 'to the occupier' letter twice a year, when he contacts them and suggests they remove the meter they quote a price to do so which he rejects and shortly after a 'meter reader' comes out. He suggests he removes the fuse but the reader is 'not qualified' to do so and so the cycle continues.

It makes me wonder what the meter is measuring and whether that is a standard thing?

However the other tenant has been working abroad for a while so local switched fuse is off and that SM is not changing.

 

[ericmark]

We are not really talking about a Smart meter, we are talking about a company doing something daft. And when people do daft things or ask daft questions, they must expect daft actions or answers, and for the other party to treat what they are doing with the contempt it warrants. Like writing on a letter to the occupier not know at this address, return to sender.

 

[morqthana]

the 3rd has only a switched fuse attached to it.

Has he tried switching it off to see what happens?

 

[SUNRAY]

Has he tried switching it off to see what happens?

I assume it is switched off but I imagine it it unlikely to make a difference