Dailly's Smart Meter Update: Still Fighting For A Fair Deal
Why weak signal is still costing Dailly residents on energy bills.
Thank you to all who responded with information regarding your Smart Meters. If you missed it, please click here for the link to the original post.
It is very evident that most people within Dailly village do not have a fully functional Smart Meter. This is mainly due to the lack of a 5G telecoms signal within our area.
When a Smart Meter does not receive a 5G signal, it essentially works as a 'dumb meter', no different than the older meters that we had.
However, the real disadvantage is that we cannot access the Smart Tariffs associated with Smart Meters. This, unfortunately, can mean that we are paying, in some circumstances, triple the price per kilowatt for our electricity.
I would also advise that if you have an app for your Smart Meter, keep checking it as there have been reports of meters that spontaneously started working.
I have contacted Octopus, who advise that they are trialling a WiFi-connected Smart Meter and they are hopeful that this would be 'rolled out' by the end of 2027.
Although there are no immediate plans to upgrade our area to 5G, there are plans to upgrade our broadband to superfast, which may in turn help on the journey to upgrade to 5G.
I have also contacted Martin McCluskey, who is the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Mr McCluskey is responsible for energy consumer issues, including Smart Meters, and I have included Alec Clark, our local councillor, in this email.
I have expressed my concerns regarding our residents being disadvantaged due to Smart Meters not functioning to capacity and have asked if they could assist us to improve the 5G signal or a Smart Meter that does not require the 5G signal. I am awaiting a reply at the time of writing.
I am also working alongside our community council to resolve this, and both Helena and I will continue to explore what resolutions may be available and what funding there may be to assist us.
Please do not hesitate to contact me or Helena (daillycc@outlook.com) with any further information or suggestions that you feel may help on this journey.
I will endeavour to keep you updated.
Barbara Wason
Email: babs_597@msn.com
