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Should you say no to getting a smart meter?

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Should you say no to getting a smart meter?

Providers typically contact customers via email with an initial invitation to sign up. Their versions of the scheme will all have their own names (such as Octopus Energy’s Saving Sessions) and quirks (Shell Energy, for instance, offers customers the option to enter a prize draw for Amazon vouchers and other gift cards).

If you have a smart meter and your provider is registered with the DFS, have a search through your inbox to see if you can find a sign-up link. However, the money saved isn’t going to blow your mind: typically participants save between £1 and £5, according to the Centre for Sustainable Energy. 

Data privacy concerns still weigh heavy

The chief concern of smart meter critics, besides the cost of the rollout, is the potential privacy concerns that come with a household’s data being transmitted to a supplier.

Although smart meters send meter readings to your energy supplier, they do not store your name, address or bank details. Energy firms are adamant that only they can see your data and that information cannot be passed on to a third party without the customer’s explicit permission.

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According to Octopus Energy, not even the network operator can read a customer’s electricity data as it is encrypted before it reaches them.

A Privacy Charter drawn up by the Energy UK trade body, however, states that organisations with which your supplier has a contract may be given access to the information collected from your meter.

It also stated in certain circumstances the police or other organisations, including industry bodies involved in preventing and detecting theft or fraud, could be given access to your data in accordance with data protection law.

Direct debit customers who fall into energy debt also risk having their smart meters switched to prepayment mode – effectively cutting off their energy supply – without a provider needing to enter a home.

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In the past, providers chasing customers who had failed to meet bill payments could secure a warrant to enter a home and “force-fit” a prepayment meter, which must be topped up before any energy can be used. 

However, smart meters can be switched to a prepayment setting remotely, allowing energy companies to bypass the courts.

Ofgem maintains that it expects suppliers to “use the remote switching facility fairly and appropriately” and is monitoring how suppliers closely.

Smart meter pros and cons

Like most things, smart meters come with benefits and drawbacks; some people love them, some people don’t. The main pros and cons are summed up below.

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