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Smart meters to cost the UK billions: 2G switch-off means replacing 12-13 million (www.theregister.com)
submitted 1 day ago by to c/technology@beehaw.org
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[–] 45 points 1 day ago (8 children)

Utility meters last for decades. Making them reliant on a cell network that's constantly changing wasn't such a good idea. They should have licensed some low band UHF frequencies and set up their own network. It doesn't take much bandwidth to read some meters.

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  • [–] 14 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    It would've made sense if the Meters were made modular with a removable antenna/mobile data modules - rather than having to replace loads of perfectly functioning smart meters because the energy companies wanted to save a few bob 20 years ago.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 day ago

    They did that for the second gen meters.

    "The first covers newer, second generation (SMETS2) meters, where only the communications module needs swapping out, but even this is likely to cost £1.3 to £1.4 billion (c $1.7 to $1.9 billion) before the hardware cost of each new hub is even factored in.

    The other is for an estimated 7 million older, first-generation (SMETS1) meter installations, which have the cellular comms hard-wired in, so the whole meter typically needs replacing. The report authors estimate this will cost another £2.1 billion to £2.45 billion ($2.8 billion to $3.3 billion), at an indicative replacement cost of £300 to £350 per installation."

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago

    That would've the smart choice.

    They also could've designed all of this to work as a mesh network so they aren't reliant on anyone elses network.

    Yes mesh networks have their flaws but they probably only need to check each meter once a month and it's probably just a MAC address and text. So speed and having the device constantly connected isn't necessary.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 day ago*

    It was a rush job, as the old analogue meters depended on a signal piggybacking on BBC R4 LW’s broadcast to switch Economy 7 timings. This ran from the Droitwich transmitter that depended on a specific type of valve which ceased production in the 1980s. In the 2000-10s the BBC bought the last 12 unused valves in the world, but couldn’t make longevity guarantees. The smart meters had to be in place before the transmissions stopped. The transmitter shut down in June.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 day ago (3 children)

    Wait, why are the individual meters wireless at all?

    It seems like if you're running a power cable for ~200 A service (Idk what UK standard is, but that's what I used to in US), running a small fiber cable in parallel would be trivial - and I expect the data rates coming from these would make a fiber connection "future proof" in the most literal sense of the word.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago

    Here in Italy meters talk over the power line itself, like the PowerLine you use in your house. It even allows (but nobody bothers) to connect a user device by plugging it into an outlet (different networks though)

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago

    That would mean digging up existing powerlines into every home though. Making them wireless v8a cellular modem makes them independent enough and avoids depending on WiFi which would place the burden of connectivity on the residents.

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