Re: All these posts, and no one has hinted at the real agenda ..
"Smart meters will allow the supplier to reduce - or disconnect - the supply at will. It's a prelude to two-tier energy supplies, where the rich get nice permanent expensive power, and the poor get a supply that can be cut at a whim."
Actually - no.
Regulations already prevent suppliers from disconnecting supplies until absolutely every avenue for recovering debt has failed. Smart meters wont make any difference to that.
Remote disconnect is actually a smartarse DECC idea - suppliers fought it
Having said all that, I've been involved in smart metering with a major supplier (thank goodness, I'm not anymore) and no, they have little to offer the consumer, certainly not at present. The only major significant advantage that I can see, in theory, is the ability for suppliers to provide cheap tariffs for off-peak usage. So, if you're in a position to schedule use of washing machines, dishwashers etc, for weekends and overnight, you stand (theoretically) to gain.
Its not that big an advantage though, is it?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
