After failing to meet the mandatory smart gas meter installation target, energy giant SSE agreed to donate £ 700,000 to the official fund this week to support vulnerable bill payers.
It's the latest in a series of hot, delayed and ironic, escalating bills that bother a lot of people
Boasting the launch of smart meters designed to provide cost-
By 2020, technology will be saved to 30 million households and small businesses.
But experts are still urging us to remain confident.
"Smart meters will benefit consumers," said Gillian Guy, chief executive of citizen consulting.
"Whether it's through more accurate billing or helping customers think about how to reduce the amount of energy they use, they put their customers under control.
But she insisted that the deadline must be postponed until 2023, adding: "By the end of 2020, the deadline for all households and small businesses to install smart meters remains unrealistic.
"The fact is that it is not just SSE that fails to make the most of the potential of smart meters.
What smart meters can do to save all of us, a lot of families are missing --needed cash.
Professor Will Swan is the lead researcher at the smart meter lab at the University of Salford.
The UK is in the process of a technology explosion, but has little impact on core goals such as reducing bills, reducing carbon emissions and improving customer satisfaction, he said.
"Due to the arrival of time, domestic energy systems are becoming more and more complexof-
Use tariffs, energy storage, renewable energy and greater mobility among customers
"Supplier relations," he explained.
"Science must provide consumers, regulators and innovators with some clarity on the benefits, possibilities and pitfalls of this new home energy technology.
He is right. smart meter technology has not excited many people so far.
Satisfaction is relatively high-citizens suggest that there is a suitable person who says they are satisfied with it.
But for customers, the actual savings are meaningless.
A report from the UK infrastructure group last year showed that people who installed smart meters are expected to save only £ 11 a year for families, far below initial expectations.
Conservative MP Grant Shapp, who chairs the group, said at the time: "Although the entire project was funded by clients through higher energy bills, unlike the energy suppliers themselves, at the moment, they can't guarantee most of their savings.
So how do smart meters do more?
Dr. Richard feton, energy efficiency lecturer at the University of Salford, gave advice to Parliament on home energy measurement, and he suggested that the technology involved should perform better.
When the new smart meter lab was launched last year, he said: "The smart meter infrastructure provides a major new opportunity for innovation in the UK.
We can see new categories of products and services that change the way we consume, produce, and store energy, bringing potential benefits to consumers.
"At the moment, a lot of people simply use smart meters as energy monitors and rely on display information to help them adjust their energy use.
In addition to that, they end the need to estimate the bill, which means that the customer has no risk of overpaying or underpaying.
But these devices can do more for us.
If the smart meter display panel is buried behind a load of other garbage, a wider understanding and use of it will not help people adapt to their energy use.
There are several different ways to set up the display, from monthly spending to average usage comparison, so for householders, it's a good idea to play and see which display best meets their needs.
People have clearly seen how much energy a house is using to help people reduce costs over time, and this reduction can continue by keeping the panel display.
But that means the customer's involvement, but that doesn't happen.
According to a report issued by the National Audit Office, 2.
1 million of 6.
The 8 million households with smart meters installed did not remember getting any energy saving advice at the time.
The supplier is obliged to do so and explain
But some huge cost-
A chance to save is being missed.
The agency that promoted the upgrade of electric vehicles pushed smart meters and Smart Energy GB to investigate 2,000 people and found that more than a third person said they were more likely to buy electric vehicles (EV)
If they can plan to charge using a smart meter during the cheapest time period.
Dr. Stephen Hall, a researcher at the University of Leeds, is working on a report on electric cars and smart meters, saying that smart meters may play a key role in driving adoption.
"Smart meters can put us on the fast track where consumers control energy choices, which encourages the development of electric vehicles in the UK," he said . ".
"They paved the way for new energy tariffs, which will reward drivers for uncharging
The peak of electricity is cheaper.
They can also make electric car owners more eco-friendly by matching charging to the greenest power on the system.
The combination of electric cars and smart meters provides us with an incredible Award-sustainable driving, which is really exciting as a car fan and environmental activist.
"Energy tariffs can become smarter for smart meters, thus really helping customers save energy, and more work can be done to get them to use power at the cheapest or most eco-friendly times
An early example of this is agile octopus tariffs from Octopus Energy.
It communicates with smart meters and other smart home technologies to control the energy consumed by the home, including turning off the immersion heater when the price is high, or turning off the immersion heater when the electrical appliance is low.