3 of the oddest things we've read about the smart meter roll-out

For this, we’ve borrowed Bjoern Reinke, our Director of Data and Data Science as our guide. Bjoern’s worked in the smart programme for more than a decade and is our resident expert in the field.

Smart meters only reduce energy consumption by 2%

Energy consumption among businesses will vary enormously after the smart meter rollout. Some customers won’t reduce their electricity use at all – for example, those who invest electrifying their fleet with electric cars, may see their costs increase. Others could use the data and information from their smart meter to help them take actions that could cut their consumption by up to 20%.

As well as enabling customers to understand how much energy they are using, smart meters are also key to building the UK’s smart grid. The smart grid will help balance energy supply and demand more efficiently. The data and insight they provide can also help us change our energy use, saving time and money.

Customers are being blackmailed into getting smart meters to get cheaper tariffs

There’s no truth at all in the suggestion that smart meters are being used in unfair practices.

Smart meters enable suppliers like Drax to collect accurate information in a timely way – and at a low cost. It’s only fair that customers should share some of those savings.

Non-energy costs (also known as Third Party Costs or TPCs) make up around 60% of the typical energy bill. Smart meters will help the network operator reduce these costs by making it easier and cheaper to balance electricity supply and demand. Your business, the end user, will share these benefits too.

Millions of smart meters have broken and there’s “no end in sight to the problem”.

In the past, some older smart meters had difficulty switching between energy suppliers. But at Drax, we’ve only installed SMETS2 smart meters, meaning they’re all easily switchable, should you choose to change supplier.

And even if your previous supplier installed an older smart meter, that‘s a problem that the Data Communications Company (DCC) is fixing.

Some of those meters are already being reconnected and it’s not like they need to be reinstalled or taken off the wall again. The DCC are fixing these meters by pushing out a digital update.

We hope Bjoern has helped bust some of the more absurd myths about smart meters and the nationwide rollout for you. If you’re a Drax customer, you can get a new smart meter installed at no extra cost. All you need to do is register.