Dara Lynott from Electricity Association of Ireland was on PrimeTime last night and said that it wasn't the case that you couldn't move from a smart plan to a non smart plan. First I heard of it.
Smart Meters
- Thread starter Senben19
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Dara Lynott from Electricity Association of Ireland was on PrimeTime last night and said that it wasn't the case that you couldn't move from a smart plan to a non smart plan. First I heard of it.
Dara Lynott has certainly caused confusion and it was just a 24 hour smart meter plan he was on about. The presenter only referred to a meter but it was obvious to me she was asking about the fact you can't go back to a non smart meter tariff once you switch. She mentioned the various suppliers websites stated this but he strongly disagreed. Maybe even he is confused - shocking if true.
The regulator are pressuring suppliers to move people to smart plans.
If a tenant chooses a smart meter plan and say two years later a new tenant moves in and has a totally different usage pattern they apparently are bound by the prior tenants plan. Crazy stuff .
Has the Regulator gone into a permanent sleep mode?.
Surely if it is a SMART meter the plan can and should be changed.
Has the Regulator gone into a permanent sleep mode?.
Surely if it is a SMART meter the plan can and should be changed.
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Indeed, in complaints that I lodged with both Bord Gais and El Irl the Complaints Teams told me that they had no control over this as it was the Regulator who set the rule
It is the regulator who are setting targets for the suppliers in terms of number on smart plans. That said, they have also confirmed that you are not restricted to a smart plan for life, that's just another myth propagated by the conspiracy theorists. Also, there's nothing to stop people choosing a 24hr smart plan, you don't have to be on a time of use plan, even if they will work out cheaper for many.
Well, in that case the conspiracy theorist was the Energia customer agent who told me that when I was switching from Flogas to Energia and wanted to stay on a non-smart nightsaver (day/night with night storage heaters/immersion) tariff and not activate smart services or switch to a smart plan.
It's a bit of a conundrum in that the suppliers are under pressure from the regulator to hit targets for migrations to smart plans and perhaps some of it is agent confusion, but the regulator has also called out that you are not obliged to switch to a smart plan. You must be offered one, but don't have to take it. With that though, suppliers are not obliged to allow new customers to sign-up to non-smart plans, the legacy day/night plans will be phased out.
If the regulator would just force suppliers to deliver on the promise of smart tariffs - significant bill reductions for those willing to use electricity when suppliers can buy it cheapest on the wholesale market - they wouldn’t need to pressure anybody onto smart plans, they’d move in their droves to save money. All the conspiracy theories about smart meters and talk of going back to an old meters/tariffs would also melt away.
Instead suppliers have been allowed to setup tariffs which might save you a few quid or cost you a few quid, but are ultimately little different to the existing day/night rates and introduce so much pricing complexity that even the major price comparison websites are unable to offer help and people are having to rely on the goodwill of a lone developer to make any sense of things.
I’m a fan of tech and smart meters, so it’s very frustrating to watch this play out in such a predictable way.
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Silversurfer
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I am just curious to know why you wouldn’t change to a smart plan? My account with the new smart meter has a day and night rate.
Because my home is a "Nightsaver" home with night storage heaters/immersion representing c. 50-60% of my total electricity usage and, from what I could see, all smart plan night unit rates were much higher than on a traditional (legacy?) non-smart day/night tariff night unit rates so I would end up paying more on a smart plan. When I eventually have a year's worth of smart meter generated HDF data I will be in a better position to shop around properly using https://energypal.ie/
Edit: On my current Energia day/night tariff my unit rate is 12.68c ex VAT. Last time I looked no smart plan night unit rate came anywhere close to that.
Edit 2: I just downloaded my HDF data to date (admittedly only a couple of months' worth so far) and energypal confirms that my existing Energia non-smart day/night tariff is cheaper than all available smart tariffs.
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Silversurfer
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Thank you it is a very detailed spreadsheet. Are the additional standing charges for the night meter included over the 12 months?
Energypal takes into account all relevant charges - standing charge and different time period unit rates and even FIT (feed in tariffs) where you're exporting locally generated units to the grid - in order to compare plans.
Same as other comparison sites such as Bonkers, Switcher, etc.
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Are there different standing charges on smart plans than existing non smart plans ?
Probably because in their CRM system they didn't have a flag for 'this customer has a smart meter so don't send them meter read reminders'. Even though in their billing system they could see the meter reading data received from the smart meter.
It's pretty easy to compare plans using your annual usage details and a spreadsheet
Different tariffs (both smart and non-smart/legacy) can have different standing charges.