Intrusive ‘smart meters’ threaten to turn UK homes into Net Zero panopticon
By Paul Homewood
London, 26 July – Net Zero Watch is warning that smart meters are a threat to privacy and freedom of conscience.
It is being reported today that hundreds of thousands of households have been remotely switched to more expensive tariffs without their consent.
But the campaign group says that this is just the beginning and that smart meters are even more of a danger than people realise, because the Government sees them as a way to reduce demand when the wind isn’t blowing.
Net Zero Watch director Andrew Montford says:
"The grid will have no way to generate enough power when there is no wind. Smart meters enable them to ration power instead. At first they will bribe you to switch off, but if not enough people take up the offer, they will switch you off anyway: first individual appliances, and then potentially your whole home."
These concerns were set out in a paper published in 2021.
Montford also suggests that smart meters are likely to be abused outside Net Zero plans and controls too.
"Smart meters will turn your home into a tool of decarbonisation policy. But they can also be used to advance other agendas. When banks close customer accounts on political grounds, it’s probable that woke energy companies may use smart meters to similar ends, harassing dissenters from the fashionable agenda of the day.
Smart meters are a 21st century panopticon: a way to ensure that you are constantly under surveillance, and always under control."
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
panopticon
/pəˈnɒptɪkɒn,panˈɒptɪkɒn/
noun HISTORICAL
a circular prison with cells arranged around a central well, from which prisoners could at all times be observed.
‘Brave New World’ & ‘1984’
were written as warnings,
but now being used as instruction books
I’ve been advising people for over 10 years never to have a smart meter fitted. Smart meters are for dumb people.
Indeed Phillip, many of us here have been banging on about the ‘smart meter’ con since their roll out, to some ridicule in the early days, even from sceptics. Now their true intention has become abundantly clear. They were never designed for customers to measure and manage their energy use cost effectively. Rather the reverse. The actual aim of the new metering system was always to monitor, limit or charge electricity use variously where necessary and, ultimately, to restrict or terminate use remotely as system stability requirements demanded. All to prepare the great unwashed for the joys of a return to Dickensian Britain. Bah humbug?
All totally predictable, for many years, indeed decades since the 80s in fact. When the old ‘Electricity Council’ with some Area Boards experimented using the same basic systems.
The Govt has specifically enacted laws to enable smart firms to manipulate smart meters so no one should be surprised.
Our supplier have just told us that an engineer will be calling to change our meter to a smart one and gave a date and time. There is no way to contact them of course to tell them to get lost, so IF an engineer turns up-which seems unlikely-they will have had a wasted journey
I hope your meter isn’t in an outside box! If it is, make sure you put a suitable obstruction (your car?) close enough to stop them opening it…
No its safely inside under the stairs! I might put a savage guard dog in with it!
Deny them entry until they turn up with a court order or the police. That’s what I’m going to do if it ever comes to it. So far I’ve had numerous letters, although none for at least a year, telling me how wonderful smart meters are and that there’s engineers in my area so I should book an appointment, but nothing more.
From day 1 of the smart meter debacle, it was always the intention to use “Time of Day” pricing to spread periods of high demand over the full day. However in the UK this has not been implemented, it would have seriously slowed the smart meter take up if ToD pricing had been upfront.
Ontario introduced compulsory smart meters with ToD pricing( 3 levels) from 2004 to 2010. A scathing analysis by the Auditor pointed out that the project had failed to influence usage and had increased costs.
Click to access 311en14.pdf
Why an earth did the UK implement a voluntary suggesting by the EU to install smart meters (Germany did not as they realised they were pointless) when the failure of the Ontario roll out became known.
OFCOM are really guilty of completely screwing up the market place for domestic supply of both electricity and gas in the UK.
Now expect a panic introduction of ToD pricing to limit demand this winter, this will result in those that can pay having a well lit up house and those that cannot afford the price, living in the dark and cold. Which house will get the brick through the window?
I did read that demand will be controlled from your local substation by high prices at high demand and you will bid to get some power, just like buying budget airplane tickets on easy jet etc.
All that is going to happen is a dystopian world of haves and have nots leading to civil unrest and discontent, together with bypassing the smart meters (desperate times lead to desperate measures) that will result in the substation being overloaded and tripping out.
Obviously I have resisted having a smart meter installed, so I can only assume that I will get charged some astronomic flat rate.
Oh what a tangled web we weave, when we practice to deceive
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Given the “Smart Meter” fiasco, what chance the projected heatpump rollout?
Everything the government promotes is a fiasco – think HS2, renewable energy, etc. The market determines winners, all that is left for the government is losers.
Do I understand this correctly: Smart meters are able to switch off individual appliances, without shutting down the whole house?
Not yet, but that’s the plan for the next generation of meters and appliances, especially two way switching so the juice from your EV battery can be sucked out to prop up the grid.
Pity you won’t be able to get to work next day!