Smart Meter Q and A

Recently, Head of Mobility and Smart Networks at SEAI, Ruth Buggie, joined Andrea Gilligan on Newstalk for their 'Ask the Expert' segment. Ruth was there to talk about smart meters and to answer some of your home electricity questions.

Here's what Andrea and Ruth discussed:

Andrea:

How is the smart meter programme rollout progressing?

Ruth:

Really well. We started over 3 years ago, and now there are about 1.8 million smart meters installed in Ireland. We're working towards about 2.2 million, so we're nearly there. It's been relatively easy for everyone involved. There is very little disruption in your home and it's free of charge.

Andrea:

A guy came out to install it at my house last year. He was there for less than an hour out the front of the house and that was it sorted, but I don't know if I've had much benefit from it.

Ruth:

You have. There are benefits for you and there are benefits for the country in terms of the smart meter technology. If you've had a smart meter installed, in the first month, it goes through a series of communication checks with the network to make sure it's getting the right information and then it will send your reading once a month, so you'll no longer get an estimated bill. Under the old system, you get about four meter readings a year. Now, you're getting an accurate meter reading every single month, so you will not get that 'bill shock' in the same way as you would have before. So, if you want to activate your smart meter that's about going on to a smart tariff. But there hasn't been much take-up and that's something we really want to encourage people to try.

Andrea:

Why hasn't there been much take-up?

Ruth:

Because people must take an active step and I would say that while the meter roll-out has been very seamless, there hasn't been a huge amount of information out there. There's a balance between everyone having a smart meter and telling everybody what they can do with it. You must be proactive. I'd liken a smart meter to a smart watch. It's there on your arm, but if you don't choose to look at it, you won't get any information out of it. However, if you engage with it and see the information, it helps you with your behaviour change and making choices. It's not going to make a difference if you don't make a choice to engage with it.

Andrea:

So, I need to sit down now and start examining the bills and looking at where I'm consuming the most amount of electricity.

Ruth:

The big electricity users at home are things like the cooker, your shower, your immersion, and your, tumble dryer. In terms of getting on your smart meter and getting on a smart tariff, you have three choices. Most suppliers offer the exact same tariff that they offer to a non-smart meter customer, it's called a 'smart 24-hour tariff' So you can just switch over and that activates your smart meter.

Andrea:

Am I right in saying that once you switch, you can't switch back.

Ruth:

Correct yes. But you're not any worse off. You're getting exact same tariff you would have got if you hadn't switched it on. So that's a 24-hour tariff. It's the same as what you were on before, but it's capturing your energy use every half hour. So, your supplier will have some sort of information to be able to give you, but ESB networks has a portal where you can look up your electricity meter. That means that regardless of who your supplier is, you can see your electricity use for every half hour. So, it will show you when you're using electricity and how much you're using. That will help you choose which kind of tariff might suit you, because the next choice after the standard tariff is the one which is moving to a standard time of use. That gives you different prices between 8:00 AM and 11:00 PM and between 11:00 PM and 8:00 AM.

Andrea:

You kind of need the information first to know which tariff to choose.

Ruth:

That's why it's a good step to move to the 24-hour tariff to get some information to inform the choice, unless you really know how and when you use energy.

Andrea:

And by next year's contract renewal then I'll be better informed to choose a tariff that's right for me.

Ruth:

Absolutely, and you might not need a whole year, unless your energy use is very different from month to month. Nobody is trying to ask people not to cook their dinner at 5:00 in the evening, but maybe don't put on the tumble dryer and the dishwasher and have the shower running and the immersion and five or six other things in the house at the same time. Some of the appliances we use we can move to other times of the day when they are cheaper to run.

Andrea:

Is it possible to get a display to show live current historical usage from the meter?

Ruth:

There is an opportunity for people who are on pay-as-you-go meters to get an in-home display with some of the suppliers. It is a technology that will be introduced in time. You can buy off the shelf options that connect to the meter and they can show you what kind of energy you're using. But really what's coming through on the ESB Networks Portal is a good option. The information you get on the portal is 24 hours behind and the in-home display would give you live usage.

Andrea:

Can people opt out of the smart meter programme given that they weren't given a choice in the matter?

Ruth:

You're deemed to have opted in. You can opt out if you want but you must express that and send that to ESB networks. But your meter will eventually have to be replaced because it gets to a certain age, and this is the next generation of technology. The smart meter is free for the customer, so there's no cost there for anyone to be concerned about.

Andrea:

Some people feel like they are being overcharged since getting their smart meter.

Ruth:

It's about looking at the kilowatt hours that you're using because that's the only baseline that you can have, and lifestyle factors can change that require people to use more electricity. Sometimes that is an increase in working from home etc. But if you have a real concern, you should contact ESB Networks. There are some appliances you can move to a nighttime usage where the best savings are available. It's quite easy to do with an offset timer so that you could move your washing machine to run at 2:00 in the morning and it would cost less than a fifth than it would during the day. And when you wake up in the morning, you've got a load of fresh washing that was very cheap to run. It's about choosing a tariff that best suits the lifestyle of the household.

Andrea:

Why do some people receive a high electricity bill if the house is empty with only things like the fridge plugged in?

Ruth:

Sometimes there is a balancing bill when a smart meter is installed and there may have been outstanding costs. There's also a term called a 'vampire load' where something is plugged in that you might not know about. By logging on to the ESB portal, you can see exactly what is being used in the house and when.

Andrea:

Is there a long waiting list for a smart meter?

Ruth:

Smart meters were rolled out initially based on location. You can now go to ESB Networks and request one, and you might get it a big quicker.

Andrea:

Does the smart meter itself use electricity?

Ruth:

Virtually nothing.

Andrea:

If you have a smart meter installed but haven't signed up yet, will you still get the estimated bills?

Ruth:

No, your usage will be sent every month on your behalf, so you won't get estimated bills. However, if you go on a smart tariff, you can choose when you pay your bill and see how your bill is progressing. It's a great budgeting tool.

Andrea:

Are you automatically on the best tariff or do you have to shop around?

Ruth:

Yes, you must shop around because prices change all the time. There are some really interesting ones that offer you free electricity at the weekend that might suit some people who do a lot of the stuff around the house on Saturdays and Sundays. Or you can have a low rate at night which is great if you have an EV so you can charge it overnight.

Andrea:

Is there a smart meter coming for gas?

Ruth:

It was part of the deliberations in the original design, I believe the cost benefit analysis is broadly neutral. I don't think a decision has been formally made in that regard. You don't have a time of use challenge with gas in the same way as you do with electricity.

Andrea:

What does someone do when they get a smart meter installed? Do they activate it, or will it kick in itself?

Ruth:

We're launching a smart energy hub next month, so hopefully that will help people guide them towards the process, but you don't need to switch it on, it will start working itself. The first month is the communications check, and after that we advise that you connect to a smart tariff that works for you.