Intrusive 'smart meters' threaten to turn UK homes into Net Zero panopticon

Net Zero Watch warns that being cut off will be a feature of decarbonisation drive

Net Zero Watch is warning that smart meters are a threat to privacy and freedom of conscience.

It is being reported today that hundreds of thousands of households have been remotely switched to more expensive tariffs without their consent.

But the campaign group says that this is just the beginning and that smart meters are even more of a danger than people realise, because the Government sees them as a way to reduce demand when the wind isn’t blowing.

Net Zero Watch director Andrew Montford says:

The grid will have no way to generate enough power when there is no wind. Smart meters enable them to ration power instead. At first they will bribe you to switch off, but if not enough people take up the offer, they will switch you off anyway: first individual appliances, and then potentially your whole home”.

These concerns were set out in GWPF's paper on smart homes published in 2021.

Montford also suggests that smart meters are likely to be abused outside Net Zero plans and controls too.

Smart meters will turn your home into a tool of decarbonisation policy. But they can also be used to advance other agendas. When banks close customer accounts on political grounds, it’s probable that woke energy companies may use smart meters to similar ends, harassing dissenters from the fashionable agenda of the day.

Smart meters are a 21st century panopticon: a way to ensure that you are constantly under surveillance, and always under control.”