That would be a very interesting report. The DCC should definitely be accountable when it comes to comms issues, and in a perfect world they would be, but unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world.
Almost four million smart meters in Great Britain are not working properly.
According to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (Desnez), 2.7 million were not operating in smart mode as of June 2023. It has since revised this figure to 4.31 million, citing reporting errors from a minority of suppliers.
At the end of 2023, 3.98 million were faulty.
Energy UK, the trade association for the energy industry, says suppliers must replace broken meters.
Don't shoot me, I'm only the piano player. I DON'T work for or on behalf of EON.Next, but am willing to try and help if I can. Not on mains gas, mobile network or mains drainage. House heated almost entirely by baby dragons.
@Mailman My readings have always been taken on the 28th of each month (27th for February) and it's the first time they've missed one apart from when they're waiting for the calorific value. They still haven't pulled one for gas but I did submit a manual read on the 29th and have received a bill as a result, so would me submitting a manual read stop them from pulling a reading themselves - I don't know.
What I find odd is that being a dual fuel customer, if there's a problem pulling a reading, I'd expect there to be mention of it on the bill or on my account, not just get a bill for one fuel as if you are a single fuel customer.
The gas meter is still working normally so I'm thinking my lack of an August gas reading may be more down to a glitch at e.onnext rather than the DCC, I'm guessing but that's where my finger of blame is pointing.
The point here is how the customer can identify whether their meter is malfunctioning, or whether it’s a communications problem. The only point of contact is the energy supplier, and if resolution lies with the DCC then the issue disappears into something akin to a black hole, with little meaningful information provided back to the customer. If the only response the energy supplier can invoke is to replace the meters and 94% of them are then found to be fault free, any objective person can see that something is seriously wrong with the system. And its customers who pay for this gross inefficiency and idiocy, but have no means of escaping the asylum.
Current Eon Next customer, ex EDF, Zog and Symbio. Don't think dual fuel saves money and don't like smart meters. Chronologically Gifted. If I offend let me know by private message, but I’ll continue to express my opinions nonetheless.
Almost four million smart meters in Great Britain are not working properly.
According to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (Desnez), 2.7 million were not operating in smart mode as of June 2023. It has since revised this figure to 4.31 million, citing reporting errors from a minority of suppliers.
At the end of 2023, 3.98 million were faulty.
Energy UK, the trade association for the energy industry, says suppliers must replace broken meters.
Interesting that many more domestic meters are non smart than in non domestic installations. Gas meters more likely than electricity meters to be non smart, also installation rates dropping. Still, mad Ed will solve this with a wave of his magic wand.
And what role does a trade association have in all this? And how can they tell if its the meter or the comms that are at fault?
@meldrewreborn I suspect that the consistent drop in installation rates since Q2 2017 would have been expected as the easy gains in installations have gone. I say 'expected' from a common sense point of view of course, I doubt that those in the various corridors of power have looked at it from that point of view.
I've just scanned through the latest accounts of Smart DCC Limited, talk about waffle. Here's a snippet:
"Our mission is to digitalise Britain's energy system, enabling innovation and re-use of the DCC network to accelerate decarbonisation and drive social good." Drive social good?
They go on to say this:
I'd agree with the first point, but the rest? It's 93 pages mostly made up from the Big Boys Book of Buzzwords.
i switched my gas from EDF to Eon Next a few months ago. My final bill from EDF was estimated and considerably over the correct level. I’m supplying readings as usual but haven’t exceeded the incorrect estimate yet. Just sitting back and waiting to see how it will be sorted, ultimately. 😇
The point here is how the customer can identify whether their meter is malfunctioning, or whether it’s a communications problem. The only point of contact is the energy supplier, and if resolution lies with the DCC then the issue disappears into something akin to a black hole, with little meaningful information provided back to the customer. If the only response the energy supplier can invoke is to replace the meters and 94% of them are then found to be fault free, any objective person can see that something is seriously wrong with the system. And its customers who pay for this gross inefficiency and idiocy, but have no means of escaping the asylum.
You could download one of the several third party apps out there ( which usually also give a much better view of your usage than the supplier offerings). If the app can see your data then it is not a problem with the meter, comms hub or DCC but with the supplier. Gives a bit more ammunition in where to point the finger.
For me, the majority of the problems related to comms issues remain unsolved because the DCC has no contractual relationship with the customer who is experiencing the problems and don't seem to be that responsive to issues raised by the supplier either. There are no published standards about sorting a comms issue within a specified time frame.
The DCC is in effect a monopoly supplier, and like many monopolies (remember BT years ago) act on the basis of this is what we do, and you have to put up with it. Without a permitted alternative for suppliers to use, the DCC is a law unto itself. They've built a system with very high security to position itself as the backbone of secure data transmission in the UK for years to come, although I'm not aware of it having other services than to the energy sector. The problem being that for too many the system does work , nor does it seem capable of being made to work.
But million of meters have been operating in "traditional mode" (dumb to most of us) for years and what should be a simple matter of sending readings to a supplier when needed fails in too many cases. We deserve better but I doubt mad Ed will care one iota, after all there is no government money paying for this fiasco - its all paid for by customers whether they have smart metering or not.
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