EDF customers to be made to pay for smart meters found to be not so smart,Hardware,Internet of Things,Software ,Cloud Computing,cloud summit,EDF,smart meters
Smart meters installed in the homes and businesses of EDF Energy customers have failed to send meter data back to the company since November last year. In consequence, customers could be hit with surprise winter bills.
The problem stems from a faulty firmware update released last on 5 November that EDF has admitted will have affected “a lot” of its smart meter customers.
The meter is supposed to sync with the paired electricity meter using the Zigbee protocol. This is meant to upload meter readings at regular intervals over the mobile network using a SIM card. However, this has been failing to pass the information on.
As a result, EDF is being told by its customers’ smart meters that no gas being used.
It is, Computing has been told, a known problem, but one with no resolution in sight.
However, affected customers have not been proactively informed about the issue. When questioned this week why EDF smart meters, which are supposed to be designed to take the guesswork out of billing, had left customers with massive debits over the winter, EDS deflected responsibility for its faulty equipment on to customers.
EDF told omputing that it is the responsibility of the customer to check if payment amounts are correct.
Furthermore, we were also told that customers should be using a ‘belt-and-braces approach’, and should continue to take manual meter readings – all of which completely defeats the point of smart meters for the customer.
EDF have said that they did warn customers at the time that there might be temporary errors on their display but that it would not affect their bills. However, the problem has now been running for four months.
Although the company claimed that 85,000 customers were successfully updated and less than one per cent failed, it hasn’t divulged the exact number of potentially affected customers.
