The Fox Report
Barry Fox’s technology column
How accurate is smart meter advertising?
T
his winter – or probably well
before then – homes with
‘smart’ meters will discover an
unhappy truth. When they took up the
offer of a free meter, they gave the gas
and electric supply companies freedom to cut off their power remotely,
at the flick of a switch (or more likely,
the click of a mouse).
Unsurprisingly, this doesn’t feature in
the power companies’ advertising campaign for smart meters, co-ordinated
by a company called Smart Energy GB.
All the promotional emphasis is on
reducing bills and saving the planet
with wind turbines and solar power.
Of course, it’s good that customers
who could pay their bills but persistently choose not to pay, and try to
deny entry to cut-off engineers, will
now get their just desserts. But honest
victims of unhappy circumstance risk
being stuck on Kafkaesque help lines
trying to get re-connected. Some may
feel they were misled by the power
companies’ promotions. Questions
will then be asked.
Legal, decent, honest and truthful?
So, this month, I will distil the essence
of countless hours of pressuring the
Advertising Standards Authority over
the adverts for smart meters it has
blessed. I have tried – so far in vain – to
interest officialdom. If any bona fide
body, with the clout to investigate, now
shows genuine interest and concern,
I will provide access to chapter and
verse documentation. If any reader
wants to circulate a copy of this article, for instance to their MP, feel free.
I can be contacted via my website:
www.tekkiepix.com
In November 2021 I complained to
the ASA about adverts (eg, Evening
Standard, 15 November 2021) which
trumpeted that ‘More wind power is a
smart thing. Smart meters are helping
modernise Britain’s energy system,
so it can use more renewables and
solar power’.
I baulked at the ‘so it can use’ claim.
How does the use of smart meters in
homes enable wind turbines and solar
farms? Smart meters enable the energy
companies to save money on human
meter-readers, and remotely disconnect supplies. Without evidence or
explanation, ‘so it can use’ seems to
be a complete non sequitur.
Silence isn’t golden
The ASA acknowledged receipt of
my complaint but then fell silent.
This is because the ASA has recently
‘convenienced’ itself – if no one else
– by changing its complaint-handling
procedure. Anyone complaining about
an advert now gets a standard form
acknowledgement, but then hears nothing further unless the ASA decides to
follow through on the complaint. The
complainant is, therefore, left dangling
with no information on whether or
not their complaint is being followed
through, and if not, why not. There
is no guidance given on how long a
silence signals a considered decision
not to act.
The ASA acknowledged, 18 months
ago, that my, ‘suggestion that we should
indicate a likely time frame within our
acknowledgement email is something
that struck a chord immediately and
we will look to implement something
like this’.
‘It’s a very helpful suggestion, thank
you,’ said a senior spokeswoman.
But the last time I looked, the ASA
system was still leaving complainants dangling.
When I pushed the ASA hard on
the lack of action on my smart meter
complaint, a senior ASA spokesman
explained that it, ‘raised an issue we
have already considered, and therefore
did not need to pursue further.’
‘The ASA has previously investigated
environmental claims by Smart Energy
GB’ the ASA spokesman explained,
and pointed to a ruling from September
2019: https://bit.ly/pe-sep22-asa1
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Practical Electronics | September | 2022
This said: ‘The ASA Council considered evidence supplied by the advertiser and understood that the data
captured and reported by smart meters
was intended to help the national grid
to anticipate demand and plan energy
provision more effectively, with less
reliance on fossil fuels. It therefore
concluded that the ads did not break
the rules’.
In early 2022 I reminded the ASA
that adverts from Smart Energy GB
(Evening Standard, 24 January 2022)
were still conflating the fitting of
smart home meters with renewable
energy sourcing. I warned that the
burgeoning energy crisis and likely
rash of remote cut-offs could trigger
questions on the ASA’s failure to curb
the questionable claims.
On the one hand…
On the face of things, the ASA is not
acting on new complaints about smart
meter adverts, because it has previously considered and allowed previous
adverts. But the older averts were far
more cautiously worded than the new
adverts. And it is devilishly hard to
decode the ASA’s policy on this.
Chief Executive Guy Parker points
to one ruling, while an ASA spokesman points to different ruling. Guy
Parker cites a March 2019 ruling
on smart meters as, ‘partly upholding against Smart Energy GB.’ – see:
https://bit.ly/pe-sep22-asa2
This ruling flowed from adverts run
in mid-2018. 14 people objected to
claims that installing gas and electric
smart meters in homes saved energy nationwide because people immediately
saw how much they were spending.
Few people with a meter would argue
with this. The meter readout shows
red as an oven gets hot, a kettle boils
or when a room heater heats. So, the
householder becomes more careful.
What the ASA didn’t like was a
suggestion that the meter itself was
saving energy, and the complaint was
party upheld. But there had been no
attempt at linking meters with wind
or solar power. Thus, the March 2019
ruling is a red herring.
Separately, an official spokesman
for ASA points to a ruling from September 2019 which condoned adverts
run in April 2019 that tied meters to
cleaner air. But these adverts included
a very significant qualification: ‘Smart
meters can’t solve climate change on
their own, but with the smarter, more
energy efficient grid they help to create, they’re a start’. So the complaint
Practical Electronics | September | 2022
was not upheld – see:
https://bit.ly/pe-sep22-asa1
I have struggled to find
similar acknowledgments in
more recent adverts which
the ASA hasn’t investigated. A senior ASA spokeswoman says it, ‘was not a
requirement, as a result of
the previous investigation….
to include this as qualifying
information in their ads’.
This could very well explain why such an honest
qualification does not appear
in more recent promotions
for smart meters.
Rising complaints
More heavy pushing led the
ASA to confirm that since
2014, it has received a total
of 180 complaints relating
to 21 discrete cases which
relate to the role of smart
energy meters in the supply
of renewable energy. Only
one (the one from September
2019 which contained the
frank admission that ‘Smart meters can’t
solve climate change on their own, but
with the smarter, more energy efficient
grid they help to create, they’re a start’)
was considered to be suitable for formal
investigation – but ‘not upheld’.
‘Other cases’ says the ASA ‘were either
informally resolved, not investigated
after initial assessment because they
did not raise any actionable issues or
were out of the ASAs remit.’ Presumably mine fell into this hole.
For completeness, I also asked the
ASA several times whether the Mark
Lund named as Chairman of Smart
Energy GB (the company behind the
smart meter adverts) was the same Mark
Lund named as Chairman of the ASA’s
funding body ASBOF (The Advertising
Standards Board of Finance). I made and
make no suggestion of any wrong-doing,
I just want to get the optics clear and
the facts straight.
ASA Chief Executive Guy Parker
has now clarified the optics on Mark
Lund’s dual role: ‘Mark chairs ASBOF
and BASBOF our funding boards. The
ASA operates independently and at
arms’ length from ASBOF and BASBOF
which are responsible for collecting the
industry levy/fees from advertisers,
online platforms, etc … neither Mark
nor any other Board members of ASBOF
and BASBOF play any role in the ASA’s
decision-making when it comes to
apply(ing) the UK Advertising Codes.’
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