Smart meter Endesa installation

[olive]

Just had our letter advising that in the next three months they will be fitting Smart meters in our locality. fair enough

Rental is .81 cents a month or there is an option to buy. Presumably renting is the preferred option especially as it doesn't actually say how much to buy!?

It also advises that they need access to the inside of your property. Is that just to flick your consumer board switches off for a few minutes while they install?

has anyone had a Smart meter? How do they perform with the frequent one to ten second outages we experience here?

[Lyric]

Here it literally took 5 mins, they waved a meter at me through the window, made a cutting throat sign and the next I knew they were driving down the track to the next house. No entry to property required.
Cannot comment on outages.

[Enrique]

Hi olive,
Might depend on what make/model of Smart meter......ours handles the frequent short breaks OK.

Our Smart meter was fitted in the old meter box on the outside of the house in the Compound/ yard

[TorreDelAguila]

We've had a smart meter fitted for 6 years or so now, to replace a previous dual-tariff mechanical meter and adjacent timeswitch. It's an Actaris 6000, readable remotely by several means. We've had the letter too, and it will be interesting to see whether the meter actually gets replaced, or just left.

I don't think you would want to buy or own one of these. They are extremely complex in function, and it is far better that, in the event of meter malfunction, Endesa have responsibility for repair/replacing it. The monthly figure they're quoting makes it a no-brainer.

If the meter is installed in an accessible place, eg outside wall, I can't see why their installer would need access to the house. They will just pull the company fuse and fit the new item. The letter says that they will furnish you with a closing meter reading for the old unit; will be interesting to see whether this happens or not. Personally, as Endesa never miss a trick in the book, it might be wise to take your own old and new old readings - if you are able to, that is.

[Free at Last]

When my smart meter was fitted, the letter I received said that if I wanted to be present when the meter was fitted I needed to advise them within a certain timescale (I didn't bother) so obviously they didn't need to have access inside the house to fit it. After it was fitted the next few bills showed a marked increase in consumption (and every month the number of units used went up by exactly 16) and I was convinced the meter was faulty. I made a complaint to Endesa and they sent a technician to check it. He was adamant that there was nothing wrong with it, but as if by magic after his visit the consumption figures stopped going up.

[Wicksey]

We never received any notification that a new meter would be fitted. Our old one was struck by lightening and once we realised it wasn't working we emailed Endesa but nothing was done until about 5 months later when they were obviously set to change all the meters in the whole valley. It was only that we heard voices outside and saw the men at the meter that we knew anything was happening. They said the power would be off for 5 minutes, and that was that. We realised afterwards that they were changing all the ones in this area and not just ours.

We had a bill for just one month after the new meter was fitted for the month of October 2016, so presumably the next 2 monthly bill will be coming out now. We checked it the other day and the usage did seem high, but we shall have to monitor it.

[TorreDelAguila]

. . . After it was fitted the next few bills showed a marked increase in consumption (and every month the number of units used went up by exactly 16) and I was convinced the meter was faulty. I made a complaint to Endesa and they sent a technician to check it. He was adamant that there was nothing wrong with it, but as if by magic after his visit the consumption figures stopped going up.

Not that I don't trust Endesa (I don't), but these smart meters are not only remotely readable, but also remotely programmable for all the multitude of measurements and settings they are capable of. This means that the meters can be set to be accurate, or otherwise, the time slots for different tariffs can be changed or tweaked, etc. etc.

When Endesa say that a meter has been 'tested', what they are - I think - saying is that the meter is not reporting or displaying any faults. The only way to test a meter for accurate measurement is, so far as I know, to bench- or field-test it in conjunction with a meter of known accuracy. I do wonder whether Endesa actually do this?

Some years ago we installed a second kWh meter of our own, to keep tabs on the smart meter we have. The readings on the two are essentially equal, with the smart meter leading by about 1.5%, which is within meter tolerances of 2%. Our reason for installing our "check meter" was Endesa's previous refusal to act over a smart meter fault, which had it running 9 hours out. That cost us almost €100 in over-charge, which was never acknowledged or refunded, despite much effort by us and the Malaga Consumer Office.

To this day, our smart meter only allows us to read Total Units Used, and not the separate Punta and Valle totals which constitute the DH tariff. I thought it was a consumer right to be able to read one's own meter. How else might an incorrect or missing reading be submitted?

[Free at Last]

The other "odd" thing was that when I made the complaint, Endesa advised me that if it turned out that the meter was not faulty, I would be charged for the visit. However, in spite of the technician saying there was no fault, I was never billed.

Endesa's meters are not unique in sometimes having faults, though. At the time, I Googled smart meters and there are horror stories from all over the world (the USA especially) where having had smart meters installed has massively increased people's bills and the energy companies insist there is nothing wrong with them.

[TorreDelAguila]

Endesa told us the same when we raised a complaint - a charge would be levied if no fault found. They never charged.

The whole smart meter situation is massively open to unseen manipulation by the energy companies, and difficult to either prove or oversee. That is the reason we installed a check meter, which, new and calibrated/certificated cost just €100. Considering the sums at stake, it seemed a sensible investment, although perhaps not for everyone.

[Wicksey]

We also noted that it only shows whole kWhs so you cannot see what you are using at the time. We used to check how fast the dial was whizzing around as we once thought that it was moving when everything was switched off (it wasn't!). But now we cannot tell what is being used as it doesn't show the smaller values.

[olive]

Hmm. Sounds like joy to come.

Had to smile as for the last 30 hours our supply has been "weak". All the house lights are dim. Kettle takes much longer to boil. I am not going to waste time asking neighbours if they are experiencing the same. They don't care as electricy is still a novelty here.

Had a closer look at the smart meter on the pamphlet and it is badged Endesa. CERM1, White box , yellow button to the right of the digital display at the top.

Anyway did a search on CERM1 and found a depressing thread on eye on spain.

Here is the first part
"Our supplier CHC are changing over the electricity meters in Olvera. The new meters are digital, and mine tripped out last week. I found that the only way to reset it was to go to the meter box outside of the house, unscrew the case, and press the white button on the meter! The old master trip in the house has been removed and not replaced with anything. Earlier this week the same thing happened at a friends house.

This seems crazy. I mean what if it is raining? I don't want to go sticking my hands inside a meter box in the rain! Many people probably don't have access to their meter box. Are they supposed to ring the supplier to get it reset, probably incurring a call out charge?

I did ask one of the local Spanish electricians who is installing the new meters. He begrudgingly wrote down my address and promised to come around and look into it, but that was the last I saw of him."

Our max potencia available is 5.5Kw, that is what we are contracted for too. At least I now know how to reset without having to get into the meter box.

[Wicksey]

No-one came into our house when the new meter was fitted so we still have the old trip switch indoors as usual.

[TorreDelAguila]

The smart meters contain their own "trip", which is solid-state and remotely programmable, according to your agreed Potencia. I believe that, once tripped, they are self-resetting. This would make an traditional ICP trip superfluous, but it might still be left in situ, as you describe.

The meters are also capable of "reporting back" various parameters, including non-occupancy/use, heavy use, potencia tripping, tampering, extent of high power-factor use, minute-by-minute usage history, and lots more. Not called "smart" for nothing!

[Enrique]

Hi,

" Not called "smart" for nothing!"............not so Smart up this way as the Meter reader has been out twice as only 14 of 110 doing the Smart stuff.

[TorreDelAguila]

Endesa continued to manually read our smart meter for several years. My guess is that they were installed in various places before the centralised reading/programming was up and running. We haven't seen a meter reader now for a couple of years, but it doesn't mean they don't perform unnoticed.