smart meters: questions to ask?

I also understand that smart meter standards are still settling and not all meters being installed are guaranteed to work for the forseeable future, through changes in suppliers, etc.

There are (at least) two generations of smart meters - the original "SMETS 1" and the new "SMETS 2". SMETS 1 meters communicated directly with your chosen supplier who installed the smart meter so if you later switched suppliers it would try to keep talking to your old supplier rather than your new one. Hence your new supplier didn't get to see you meter readings, so you'd be back to reading it manually. SMETS 2 meters don't talk directly to a supplier, but to a new Data Communications Company (DCC) which passes the data onto your current supplier - so they can cope when you switch. There is a program to upgrade existing SMETS 1 meters to SMETS 2 (by a remote software upgrade as I understand it) so that problem with SMETS1 meters might be a temporary one.


There have apparently been some other problems with some new SMETS 2 meters - especially in the "North" - where communication with the DCC is via a dedicated radio system rather than the mobile phone system - so some suppliers still prefer to install SMETS 1 meters rather than SMETS 2 in some circumstances.

We have a 4kW PV installation (which works well), but I understand some smart meters are incompatible with PV installations.  Partly for that reason I have prevented installation, so far.

I've too heard of a number of problems - but I haven't yet got to the bottom of them. (I have PV, but my supplier (who specialises in renewable energy) isn't offering smart meters yet - I can't help thinking there might be a good reason for that). Some might be accounted for by the "home display" getting confused by exports (the meter itself working correctly), other might be that the original meter wasn't a 'ratchet' type when it should have been (so had previously been incorrectly running backwards when exporting) - so the new (correct) import readings come as a bit of a shock. There has been talk of electronic meters (not just the smart ones) getting confused about poor power factor or distorted a.c. waveforms (which might be expected from a PV inverter) - or at least treating them in a different way to older meters - but I've no heard anything to substantiate that or any definite conclusions.

 

Benefits to the customer?

Not a lot, if any at all. 

In the "bigger picture" smart meters should help the network in general in the longer term - the power fail reporting feature enables DNOs to home in on the location of faults far more quickly - thus enabling power to be restored far more promptly. Smart meters will be the foundation for smart appliances (and EV charging) that will be able to bias their consumption to times of lower demand - enabling the network to support more without (or with fewer/smaller) expensive upgrades (the cost of which would, of course, eventually have fallen on the consumer). Likewise the need for additional occasional-use (and hence expensive) generation can be reduced if the smart meter/smart appliance combination can be used to clip the peaks of demand. Automatic readings and saving the cost of sending someone round in a van are minor in comparison.


  - Andy.

I also understand that smart meter standards are still settling and not all meters being installed are guaranteed to work for the forseeable future, through changes in suppliers, etc.

There are (at least) two generations of smart meters - the original "SMETS 1" and the new "SMETS 2". SMETS 1 meters communicated directly with your chosen supplier who installed the smart meter so if you later switched suppliers it would try to keep talking to your old supplier rather than your new one. Hence your new supplier didn't get to see you meter readings, so you'd be back to reading it manually. SMETS 2 meters don't talk directly to a supplier, but to a new Data Communications Company (DCC) which passes the data onto your current supplier - so they can cope when you switch. There is a program to upgrade existing SMETS 1 meters to SMETS 2 (by a remote software upgrade as I understand it) so that problem with SMETS1 meters might be a temporary one.


There have apparently been some other problems with some new SMETS 2 meters - especially in the "North" - where communication with the DCC is via a dedicated radio system rather than the mobile phone system - so some suppliers still prefer to install SMETS 1 meters rather than SMETS 2 in some circumstances.

We have a 4kW PV installation (which works well), but I understand some smart meters are incompatible with PV installations.  Partly for that reason I have prevented installation, so far.

I've too heard of a number of problems - but I haven't yet got to the bottom of them. (I have PV, but my supplier (who specialises in renewable energy) isn't offering smart meters yet - I can't help thinking there might be a good reason for that). Some might be accounted for by the "home display" getting confused by exports (the meter itself working correctly), other might be that the original meter wasn't a 'ratchet' type when it should have been (so had previously been incorrectly running backwards when exporting) - so the new (correct) import readings come as a bit of a shock. There has been talk of electronic meters (not just the smart ones) getting confused about poor power factor or distorted a.c. waveforms (which might be expected from a PV inverter) - or at least treating them in a different way to older meters - but I've no heard anything to substantiate that or any definite conclusions.

 

Benefits to the customer?

Not a lot, if any at all. 

In the "bigger picture" smart meters should help the network in general in the longer term - the power fail reporting feature enables DNOs to home in on the location of faults far more quickly - thus enabling power to be restored far more promptly. Smart meters will be the foundation for smart appliances (and EV charging) that will be able to bias their consumption to times of lower demand - enabling the network to support more without (or with fewer/smaller) expensive upgrades (the cost of which would, of course, eventually have fallen on the consumer). Likewise the need for additional occasional-use (and hence expensive) generation can be reduced if the smart meter/smart appliance combination can be used to clip the peaks of demand. Automatic readings and saving the cost of sending someone round in a van are minor in comparison.


  - Andy.