SSE glitch: 'Smart meter said I owed thousands'

[EC]

Since it involves consumer energy infrastructure, I figured it'd fit in this section.

A woman has spoken of her surprise when her smart meter quoted thousands of pounds for a day's usage of gas and electricity, due to a system error.

Jane Allen was one of many confused customers who posted the strange readings from their SSE smart meters on social media.

One customer's display showed more than £30,000 for a single day.

SSE apologised and said no customers would be charged "the extra amounts resulting from errors".

Smart meters send information on energy usage back to the supplier.

They let the customer know how much electricity or gas they are consuming each day - and how much it's costing them - in real time.

But for some customers, the readings have been somewhat higher than usual over the past week.
Image copyright Mark Umpleby
Image caption Mark Umpleby from Batley, West Yorkshire was almost 3 million % 'over budget' on Wednesday
Image copyright Twitter @poppystudz, @TheTekGuy, @JasmineAmberr
Image caption Customers posted the not-so-smart meter readings on social media

Jane Allen, from Portsmouth, has had her smart meter for around five months. But on Wednesday, she started to notice the strange activity.

"I was quite frightened to be honest - thinking it could be a gas leak," she said.

On Sunday her meter stated she was on £36,448.29 for the week - far beyond the daily £3.80 her family usually use.

"My worry is that they are going to try and get that sort of money out of my bank.

Ms Allen called SSE who assured her "not to worry".

"But I thought by now it would be working again," she added.
Image copyright Twitter
Image caption Customers took to social media on Friday and Saturday

Usman Hussain, whose meter suggested he had used £9,576.98 of energy on Friday, wrote on Twitter: "Think my SSE Smart Meter for energy and gas may be having slight problems! Either that [or] a neighbour has started nicking my leccy or gas."

Will smart meters be worth the money?

For the reading to be accurate, Mr Hussain would need a home bigger than Buckingham Palace - which, with 775 rooms, was billed £1m for a year.

The average annual bill for a large house in the UK is £1,486.

More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39169313

[Elderberry]

I had a similar problem, but not that extreme. My water meter was replaced and I noticed my next month's usage seemed high. I watched for a couple months and yep it seemed too high. Then being overwhelmed at work, I forgot about it. Then the summer months came and it was really high. The new meter had a sweep needle that showed even small usages. I tested using a 20 gallon jug and it showed 4 times that amount. Then I was fighting city hall to get it resolved. I submitted a request for a meter test and that I wanted to be present. One day I came home to find that the meter had been replaced. I called to find out they tested it, it was in error, so they replaced it. So then I asked if they determined what the deviation was. They didn't know so they were going to base my refund on my next month's usage. A month went by and they said they were going to look at another month too. The first month was December. Now they monitored January. This they used as my usage  back about 1 -1/2 years to when my meter was replaced. I didn't complain. I got back a tidy sum.