Smart meter - does it have to communicate for EV tariffs?

[Sheepshanks]

For those charging at home on EV related tariffs, does the smart meter have to function properly for the discounted rate to work?

Just had a smart meter installed and it's apparently 4G. Installer used the bigger of the two sizes of aerial he had and declared it "fine". But it's not working and reading up about it, something of a nightmare is predicted as the system switches over to 4G and all the existing smart meters stop working and new ones don't work as the coverage is iffy..

[James6112]

The ones i’ve seen, require readings every 30 mins.
I assume this means it has to talk to them ..

[paradigital]

Yes, they have to function properly.

A “smart” meter that doesn’t call home means you’ll be supplying (likely monthly) manual readings, which means it’s no more than a dumb meter at that point.

[Sheepshanks]

Thanks - the timed tariffs obviously wouldn;t work but I was looking at the OVO Charge Anytime tariff and they know, I guess via the compatible charger, when to charge the car and they add a credit to the bill. So that it could still work with a dumb meter (if OVO would allow it to).

If what I'm reading about smart meters and connections to them becoming a nightmare then it strikes me that this is going to be a significant issue for EV home charging.

[GT6k]

In fact it depends. The more complex tariffs with constantly varying times and costs obviously need constant comms. But simple time of use tariffs with cheap overnight rates just require occasional comms. The meters can store over a year of data so they just require some contact to phone home. I would guess that if the installer says it is ok then it will work, just don't go chasing the data every day. My meter was out of comms for 6 months but it worked out fine.

[Sheepshanks]

The installer said it was fine but Shell have told me it's not communicating and needs to be re-commissioned.

Funnily enough they were able to install it in 2 weeks, pushed through by their Twitter team after I complained that yet again they'd ignored my submitted readings. The best they would ofer for the re-commisioning appt is end of Oct.

Installer told me it'll pick up any 4G signal but bit of research suggests the smart meter network uses Vodafone.