Impacts of budget affect the wider economy

Commodity watch by Chris Osborne, UFU senior policy 0fficer

What are smart meters?

Smart meters measure how much gas and electricity you're using and send their readings automatically to the energy supplier. They come with an in-home display screen to help you monitor and reduce your energy use. The premise being that they lead to lower energy bills and carbon emissions.

In Great Britain (GB), 36 million smart meters have already installed for domestic users and small businesses. In Northern Ireland (NI), the Department for the Economy (DfE) are currently consulting on their introduction. This followed an information gathering exercise, whereby LCP Delta were commissioned by DfE, and they invited feedback from stakeholders including the Ulster Farmers' Union (UFU).

NI farmers utilise energy to varying degrees with sectors having different energy use profiles, and we made the case that smart meters could impact upon every aspect of farm businesses.

In our reply to LCP Delta, we set out our reservations on the roll out of smart meters.

• UFU reservation 1: Reliability/connectivity concerns - GB energy suppliers are permitted to bill customers retrospectively for up to a year's worth of energy bills if, for example, a meter is not providing readings correctly and this compounded if the technology is not working.
• UFU reservation 2: Cyber security fears - Smart meters are vulnerable to cyber security risks, and this cannot be ignored. Modern farming systems utilise integrated software systems. This means that a dairy farmer with a robotic milking system, the introduction of a smart meter could leave such farms vulnerable in terms of their cyber security. In our evidence to LCP Delta, we said that the onus was on DfE to ensure that mitigation measures such as encryption, authentication, software training and physical security measures must be supported in any rollout of smart meters.
• UFU reservation 3: Data Privacy concerns - We have been contacted by UFU members who have data privacy concerns regarding the use of smart meters.
• UFU reservation 4: Remote access to energy supply by supplier - In GB, direct debit customers who go into arrears, risk having their smart meters switched to prepayment mode, effectively cutting off their energy supply. This cannot happen on a farm where a constant energy flow is crucial, especially in relation to animal welfare and plant propagation.
• UFU positive observation: Integration with small scale renewables - One area of positivity regarding smart meters is their integration with on-farm small scale renewables, but concerns override any positives.

Summary of DfE consultation recommendations

In their consultation, DfE have set out a series of recommendations which can be considered to form the basis for the smart meter roll-out. This was based on the feedback collated by research by LCP Delta;

• NIE Networks best placed to procure and install smart meters and to develop a new data system for storage and management of the data.
• Consumers should have a say in who can access their personal meter data.
• Systems should be designed with the help of consumers using a co-design process.
• Further advice should be sought on cyber security provisions.
• An oversight group should be established to oversee deployment.

BBC Panorama - 'The truth about smart meters'

BBC Panorama this week has cast doubt on smart meters and has gone as far as to ask if their rollout in GB was 'a costly mistake'.

They found that smart meters in Northern England/Scotland are designed to connect to the radio signal. Whereas in Central/Southern England and Wales, they use GPS (mobile technology). This has led to issues in Northern Great Britain, where smart meters are not working at all.

The hope would have been that here in NI, DfE would have noted that 10% of smart meters in GB are not working on account of this disparity and learnt from it. Yet this is not the case, DfE in their Consultation have ruled out designing a bespoke system, as 'unnecessary'. Instead, they are relying on off-the-shelf meters and systems.

The seamless transfer of metered data to energy companies is key to the success of smart meter technology, but as seen in Northern England/Scotland, this is a waste of time and money if you do not get the correct system in place at the very beginning.

As it stands, our initial reservations (specifically UFU reservation 1 - technological concerns) are vindicated and this will be reflected in our response to the consultation.