On Tuesday, 5 February 2019 09:53:43 UTC, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Andy Burns submitted this idea :

That's OK if you have (near) real-time access to your consumption. By default
a smart meter only takes a reading once a month, you'd have to actively
choose daily or per half-hour readings.

..and the 30 minute readings are stored and forwarded in one
transmission, so it is still not actual live data. The mobile network
could never cope with live data.

I daresay it could cope with a small minority of people being closely monitored no problem.