Smart meters: Cheaper tariffs and more frequent readings promised with new scheme | Personal Finance | Finance

The Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement (MHHS) is a programme to reward customers for shifting consumption to times when electricity is cheaper to generate. The project sets out to use the ability of smart meters to record energy consumption every half hour, to improve the efficiency of electricity supply to UK households.

Non-profit group Elexon is overseeing the MHHS programme.

Jamil Ahmed, distinguished engineer at Solace, told Express.co.uk: “When prices are cheaper during certain hours, customers will be made aware in real-time and be encouraged to take advantage of this by shifting their consumption levels.

“This can then be applied to connected appliances as well, altering usage patterns to optimise lower costs based on the data fed into the smart meter.

“Being better informed on exactly energy usage in real-time ‘nudges’ consumers to positively adapt towards lowering it.

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Research from the consumer group Which? in 2019 found that almost six in 10 of those surveyed had experienced their smart meter, in-home display, or both stop working when they switched to a new energy company.

The survey also found that around 58 percent of consumers with smart meters who switched suppliers had problems with their switch.

The Government has released a consultation that to look at requiring “smart devices” to meet the “minimum cybersecurity” requirement by the mid-2020s.

Ministers say that the greater use of Energy Smart Appliances (ESAs), which include smart meters, could create “new routes for cyber security attack”.

The Government aims to strengthen cyber security around the industry as more smart devices and connectivity mean more ways to break into networks, including the energy grid.