Our worst smart meter suspicions have just been confirmed

It should come as little surprise that the boss of British Gas is pushing for the mandatory installation of smart meters. They are the means by which energy firms could hike bills with Uber-style surge pricing. The energy industry will probably tell us it is all about helping Britain reach its net zero commitments, but the vested interest is plain to see.

Smart tariffs, as they will be called, may be smart if you are a company wanting to maximise its profits. They may also work for those with a house stuffed full of AI technology, which will be able to make the most of cheap tariffs, and turn your appliances on and off accordingly. But for ordinary people they will be a nightmare. We will all be left sitting nervously by the electricity meter, wondering whether we can afford to heat our dinner or put the washing on.   

The variability in pricing which would be necessary to cope with a grid highly dependent on intermittent wind and solar could be huge. At present, wind and solar can generate over half the nation’s electricity – or less than one per cent of it, depending on weather conditions. That doesn’t matter so much as long as we have gas to back it up. Yet the Government wants to remove unabated fossil fuels (in other words, those from power stations which are not equipped with expensive carbon capture) by 2035, and Labour wants to do it by 2030. There is little hope of the required energy storage arriving in time. The only tool which might be available by then is demand management: surge tariffs to dissuade people from using electricity when wind and solar are light.

At present, consumers have the power to thwart the final option – if we simply refuse to have a smart meter fitted we cannot be charged at those tariffs. But if the chief of British Gas gets his way, that option would be removed. A smart meter installation team would arrive on our doorstep and we would have no choice.   

You would think that, before trying to force smart meters on us, the energy industry would at least make sure they worked. But as many customers have already discovered too often, they don’t. Either they don’t function in smart mode, or they have been giving incorrect readings. To rub salt into the wound, some customers have been charged by their energy supplier for fixing broken meters. That is not what they thought they had signed up for.

If people want to have a smart meter because they find it helps them budget better, then fine. But what is wrong is when businesses try to force them on us, when they may not even work properly. Anyone should be able to sniff a very large rat in the plan to make them mandatory. The Government should reject it firmly.