Energy customer sees bill sent 'through the roof' after smart meter installed
One energy customer was shocked to see their bills rise from £38 a month to over £225 after they had a smart meter installed.
The customer, who is based in Brighton and only referred to as SB, told The Guardian they were a low-energy household and they had installed solar panels last year. They said their energy bills barely reached £40 a month after the Government's £400 energy support came to an end in March.
SB said their bill for February sat at -£4 due to the Government's energy relief, at £21 in March, £46 in April and £38 in May. However, they claimed they were persuaded by their energy supplier 100Green to get a smart meter at the end of May of this year.
Smart meters are energy meters which display your gas and electricity usage in real-time so you can see exactly how much you're spending on energy each day. They work by calculating energy usage based on automated readings which are sent to your energy provider every 30 minutes.
The idea is they can help people save money on their energy bills are they help them become more aware of their energy consumption so can adjust their usage accordingly. However, after the smart meter was installed, the 100Green customer said their bills suddenly "went through the roof".
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They told the publication that their bill leapt to £226 in June and £201 in July. They added: "It’s as if we were running a kiln day and night." SB told the publication's consumer Q&A section that they had refused to pay the "enormous direct debits" but because of this they had now been switched to a "really expensive tariff".
They said: "The whole situation is very frustrating and we wish we had not agreed to get a meter in the first place. Can you help?" The Guardian contacted 100Green to find out what had happened. It was eventually discovered that there was a mistake when the smart meter had been installed in May and SB was being charged for the energy their solar panels were generating rather than having it knocked off their energy bill.
There was further good news for SB, as 100Green credited £700 back into their account to cover what they had been overcharged. The consumer column wrote: "A happy ending, and with the smart meter in place you hope to start earning some money by selling excess energy back to the grid."
The energy supplier 100Green told the Mirror that it had sent a meter engineer to the property however was told by the customer that the issue had not been with the smart meter but had been with their solar PV panels. This fault caused the higher meter readings that 100Green received and later billed for.
100Green explained that the technical fault was rectified by the customer's solar panel installer and the energy readings then dropped to an "expected level". The energy provider then quickly agreed with the customer a credit amount based on the correct usage that was later applied to their next bill. 100Green’s also noted that their meter engineer confirmed that the customer’s smart meter was working properly.
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