New Smart Meter installed - but you can only check usage online if you have a Smart PLAN?!!!

podgeandrodge · 17-10-2022 02:03PM #1

Got a new Smart Meter installed today. (I have no intention of going for a smart plan until they make sense, and will stay on my current plan).

I see with Electric Ireland, you can only view usage on a smart meter if you have a smart plan - wtf? Surely the meter allows access online (or should) regardless of whether you opt into a smart plan - or is this a form of blackmail? Perhaps I am misunderstanding, so if anyone has a smart meter without a smart plan, but can go online to view usage, please confirm!

cruizer101 · 17-10-2022 02:08PM

That is correct currently you can't access the data unless you sign up for a smart plan, this is the same across all providers.

However it is due to change (partially I think due to the slow uptake of smart plans), there was an announcement that the data would become available, as esb networks gather the data it would be through them somehow. That said I'm not sure when it will be, it really is something that should have been in place from before smart meters were installed at all.