Imposition of smart meters- the view of an energy broker
There has been media coverage where the Chief Executive of British Gas one of the UK major utility companies wants every member of the public to have a smart meter(1). Presumably, that is to cut demand for fuel. In a very limited capacity, I am a part-time energy broker so I can see his argument but it could have been put better. You’ll see it’s six of one and half a dozen of the other.
If people save on their energy costs it helps the utility companies because it saves them the cost of building more power stations. Consider this. At present, there are 8 nuclear power stations in the UK (2.)
According to UK energy in brief (3) published by the UK government in 2021 around 16% of the UK’s electricity is generated by nuclear. That works out on average of 2% each.
Now let’s look at the financial cost. Let’s consider Nuclear energy: How environmentally-friendly and safe is it? from BBC news (3)
It says “the original budget for Hinkley C was £18bn in 2015. It is now expected to cost £33bn at today’s prices.”
I am no fan of nuclear power. In the 1980s it was decided not to expand the nuclear program not because of radiation risks of environmental issues or cancer clusters. It was purely because it was uneconomic. However, that’s a different matter.
