"Max Demian" wrote in message
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On 09/06/2018 23:07, Rod Speed wrote:
wrote in message
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On Friday, 1 June 2018 13:51:40 UTC+1, Davey wrote:

My electricity supplier has recommended a tariff which would save me
money over the year, but signing up for it also includes this as part
of the T&Cs:

"By signing up to the tariff you are registering your interest for a
Smart Meter. This means we may contact you in the future to discuss a
smart meter installation as and when you become eligible."

Would this lock me into having to have a Smart Meter? I see no way that
I can have this tariff and exclude this clause. I bet they would say
that I was eligible as soon as I signed up.

Smart meters can turn off the supply and that's a fact.

No its not with plenty of them.

Whether the provider use that facility is another matter.
If people are in debt (the usual reason for disconnection) then
smart meters come into their own. The supplier can remotely
adjust the tarrif and recover the debt without disconnection.

Dont need a smartmeter to do that. Smartmeters just record
the amount of electricity used and when it was used, and its
the back office function that applys the tariff, turning the
use into the amount charged. And only the back office
function can do that because only it knows the plan
detail, what the standing charge per day is, what
discount for payment on time is, etc etc etc.

They are supposed to be able to charge different rates at different times,

Of course they must do to be able to support time of use tariffs.

but it's not clear how they do this.

Its very clear how they do that, they keep track of KWH used by time band.

To do it as you suggest, it would have to sent back the usage hour by
hour, and possibly minute by minute

Nope, just keep track of KWHs used by time band and report
that back whenever that is specified. No different to just keeping
track of KWHs used regardless of time band except with more
totals kept.

- which would require a very reliable (and busy) remote connection.

Nope. Just keep track of the KWHs used by time band and report back
as required.

Otherwise the supplier could send the rate structure to the meter which
would adjust its rates accordingly.

Makes a lot more sense to keep track of KWHs by
time band and report back at the specified rate.