Survey raises questions about transparency over use and storage of smart meter data

In March and April this year, pollsters Ipsos MORI quizzed 2,015 smart meter customers on their experience of smart meters in a study (19-page / 559KB PDF) carried out on behalf of the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Only 16% of respondents said they recalled receiving information from their energy supplier about their plans to store energy use data, while 73% said they did not receive any information of that kind.

In addition, the study found that just 33% of smart meter customers remembered being asked about whether they wanted to share half-hourly data about their energy consumption recorded by smart meters with their supplier, of which 94% agreed to such data sharing.

Of the customers who agreed to share half-hourly data, 30% said they did so because they "didn’t see any reason not to", while 17% said they thought it would benefit them to do so. More than one in ten of those customers also said they thought sharing half-hourly data about their energy consumption would benefit their supplier, help their supplier predict provision, or help them get a better plan, while 9% said they thought it would lead to a reduction in their bills.

According to the survey report, however, 36% of respondents said they would like to receive more information about what happens to the data stored in their smart meter and who can access it.

The survey found that 80% of smart meter customers were either very satisfied or satisfied with their smart meter, and 43% said they would definitely recommend one to others.

"A central strand of the regulation and rollout smart metering in the UK has been to give consumers control over their energy consumption data," expert in smart metering Chris Martin of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said. "For example, in order for supplier to gain access to the granular half-hourly consumption data that smart meters can record, they need to obtain the explicit consent of smart meter customers and to inform customers what that data shall be used for. This means that consumers must be notified of how their data might be used and the circumstances in which it could be shared with third parties, for example."

"The survey results are also at odds with the direction of travel in privacy law in general. Under the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), great emphasis is placed on transparency around the processing of personal data, the purposes of that processing and to whom data might be shared with, so there might be work for suppliers in the smart energy market to do to improve customers' engagement on these issues," he said.

"The UK government has been clear in the past that it sees successful consumer engagement as a vital component for the success of the rollout. Openness on how smart meter data is to be used will be an important part of that to obtain the trust of consumers and ensure improved uptake of the technology among energy consumers," Martin said.