"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Chris J Dixon writes:
tim... wrote:

but that's because it requires smart appliances - which no-one makes,
because no-one can use...

Which is the classic chicken and egg problem for which someone has to
broker
a solution (or not).

Has anyone even agreed the tariff regime which might be
implemented to take advantage of this potential mechanism?

There was a program on Radio 4 around lunchtime on this.
Suppliers said they'll offer variable charging tarrifs when there
are more people on smart meters. Austrialia has been offering them
for 5 years and there's only a 1% uptake.

Its much more complicated than that. In some areas you get no choice.

I think they said 39% of those who switched
to them found themselves worse off.

That only happens when the smart meter tariff does that deliberately.

Also, tarrifs changing through the day will only apply to
electricity. There is no variation in gas prices through the day,
as the pressurised supply pipework stores several days worth of
gas.

The other thing the program mentioned is that there's still no
agreement between suppliers on smart meter technology to be used,
so at the moment, you need to assume your smart meter will become
a dumb meter if you switch supplier.