Yes, there's no downside to a SM and several benefits. I really can't comprehend why people are so anti.
The downside is that as we move to an all electric future, we do not have the capacity to cope with high demand peaks.
Instead of creating that capacity, once everyone is on a smart meter( a gimmicky name for a half hour meter) then peak useage will be priced out of the market & Triad/TNUoS charges may become applicable to domestic customers.......
What are Triads?
Triads are the top three half-hourly peaks of national energy demand across the grid, separated by ten clear calendar days, over the most energy intensive period of the year: November to February. National Grid confirms these peaks after the season, at the end of March.
Typically, triads occur when high business demand meets the domestic mid/late afternoon tea-time period, causing an overall spike in energy use.
How Triads impact your energy bill
To manage the huge demand on the network during the triad periods, the National Grid imposes a
Transmissions Network Use of System (TNUoS) charge. This is used to finance the maintenance of the UK’s electricity grid to ensure future supply. Impacting customers with
half-hourly meters, the charge is proportional to a business’ energy use over the triad periods (the three half hours of highest demand) and is linked to their location. If a business doesn’t consume electricity in the three Triad periods, they don’t pay HH (half-hourly) TNUoS charges for the entire financial year.
As standard, we include a charge for 85% of your maximum demand figure for TNUoS on our customer bills. After the final triads are announced, we issue the March invoices to show the triad periods and make any reconciliations.
The Triad challenge
To mitigate against Triad costs, companies and suppliers work hard to predict when they’ll be so they can turn down or off their energy usage during those periods. Due to the increasing use of Triad avoidance schemes as well as flexibility solutions, such as Demand Side Response and the growing use of renewables, they are getting harder to predict.
........... Now this is all fine & dandy for the likes of myself & John Smith, who are fortunate enough to be able to afford renewables & batteries to mitigate or even take advantage of this developing situation, but 99% of our population will not be able to afford the investment or it's even practicle to put PV/batteries etc in.
This situation may change & the gov may more incentivise this change or may have to fully finance PV & batteries for everyone or the future market may make them cheaper, but I bet they will just let the less well off have to change their lifestyle so they don't use electricity at peak times, unless they can afford it.
So in the future, when gas boilers are banned & we all have Electric heating, there's going to be some cold people at 5pm when they come home from work.
) at that point.
