Tuesday 12 May 2015

Smart Meter Madness. Ed Milibands £11bn mistake that the Coalition didn't stop - there is still time - just.

Not even sworn in and a second letter ready to go to my MP...

Dear <>,

Again, congratulations on your re-election.

I write again regarding a completely different issue - that of 'Smart Meters'.

While in office Labour launched a programme to roll out smart meters to provide real time monitoring of every houses energy consumption - the programme is hugely expensive, has little if any consumer demand, is already risky (risks that the technology is not ready for widespread deployment) and finally it is expected to be rendered completely redundant and ineffectual.

There are general comment on this £11bn project here:

http://order-order.com/2015/05/11/another-smart-meter-disaster

and an Institute of Directors report against the project here:

http://www.iod.com/influencing/press-office/press-releases/smart-meters-a-government-it-disaster-waiting-to-happen

Further, there is now a move to encourage homes to have local battery storage which is expected to receive heavy backing in the USA this year ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-32545081 ) so may well arrive here in the UK soon - if a home has local energy storage, all the smart meter will show is 'on' while the battery charges and 'off' for the entire period when they battery is being used. There will be no 'detailed' data for the 'smart meter' to capture - making the whole concept redundant before it is even rolled out.

It would seem a shame for a new Conservative government to start its term of office taking responsibility for not defusing an expensive IT disaster time bomb planted by the last Labour government.

Yours

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