You’re not being paranoid: smart meters are out to get you

If anyone was still in doubt as to why the government is keen to press ‘smart’ meters onto us, those doubts will surely now be dispelled by the latest intervention of Ofgem, which has proposed abolishing the current electricity price cap and replacing it with a cap which varies throughout the day in response to the wholesale price of electricity. No, the smart meter sitting in your home is not there just to help you manage your electricity use – it is there to facilitate a future ‘dynamic’ pricing structure for electricity consumers. It is there so that we can be offered cheap electricity when wind and solar power is plentiful – and be hammered with Uber-style surge pricing when it is scarce.

Customers of some energy companies have already had a foretaste of this. In January 2023 they were offered – through the National Grid’s Demand Flexibility Service – the chance to earn £10 or so back on their electricity bills if they agreed to turn off appliances between 4 p.m.