Switching Energy Suppliers with a Smart Meter — A Guide

Photo by Brian Babb on Unsplash

Fact: You can switch energy providers if you already have a Smart Meter.

Full Disclosure: There are some caveats.

Such as?

Today’s Smart Meters are 1st generation devices, called SMETS 1, which communicate only with the energy supplier that provides them.

So?

It means that if you want to switch away from the supplier that provided your Smart Meter, your Smart Meter turns ‘dumb’, and you need to go back to the painful days of sending in regular meter readings again.

Please tell me some good news…

The good news is that Smart Meters-turned-dumb can still read your gas and electricity supply and are miles ahead of their predecessors by being much easier for us to read and best of all, located inside your home. (No wiping away spider webs to read meters in a pokey shed!)

Also, 2nd generation Smart Meters are in the process of getting rolled out. What’s great about these is that all suppliers can connect to this type of meter, whether they provided it or not. So each supplier you switch to will be able to see your actual usage and meter readings, and your in-home display helpfully shows any suppliers’ costs seamlessly. Win! 👏

And if you already have a 1st generation Smart Meter, good news for you too: they are expected to get connected to the new infrastructure in 2019. 🙌🤞

In summary…

Don’t let a Smart Meter prevent you from switching energy suppliers.

When you switch with a Smart Meter, your new supplier may not be able to connect to your meter. This means that it’ll be necessary to send regular meter readings to your new supplier.

However, the good news is your Smart Meter will still show your gas and electricity usage in an easy-to-read way, making it less of a painful process.

So if you have a Smart Meter and have the opportunity to switch to a new supplier that will save you money, go for it! You don’t want to be stuck on an over-priced tariff any longer than you have to, and the pain of providing meter reading to your new supplier will be a small price to pay for peace of mind.