Is it worth Moving to a Smart Meter Plan?

I don't think that any of the electricity providers have any minimum period that you need to be away from them before they consider you a new customer when you sign back up with them? I've been a customer of many of the electricity providers on the market and never had any problem returning as a new customer.

Energy suppliers in Ireland | CRU.ie

This is a list of all energy suppliers licensed by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) to supply electricity and gas in the retail energy market in Ireland.
www.cru.ie www.cru.ie
 
CharlieMac said:
Could you go from Electric Ireland to Flogas and back to Electric Ireland and then be considered again a new customer?
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I never had any problems doing exactly that.
I have been with all the main providers, a few of them more than once.
Jan 2024 I moved to SSE Airtricity.
Jan 2025 I moved to Bord Gais.
Jan 2026 today, I moved back to SSE, I still got the new customer offer of 35% off their standard electricity rate, 30% off gas and €150 off my first bill.
 
Des Pondent said:
The default was yes, I changed it to no
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I think this must be what happened. Looked back at my old bills and the MCC changed last year when i switched.

Have moved now to a smart day/night (no peak in evening). It's a little bit more expensive than the non smart choice but still cheaper than current supplier.
 
Just wondering if it's only Yuno that we need to watch out for with regards to them 'activating' your smart meter automatically during switch over ?

I just read what @Des Pondent wrote re. SSE Airtricity asking about activating the smart meter during switch over with them.

I'm considering switching to SSE Airtricity's Standard Electricity 35% + €115 credit plan, but bit nervous now in case the option to Decline 'activating' my smart meter doesn't come up or goes wrong.

I have MCC01 meter , though I have a smart meter is installed , and I want to stay as I am (ie. on 'Standard' Electricity Plans).

I've only switched provider once before, from E.I. to Energia last year, and found that switch no problem , in case anyone else is in same boat as me.
(Only been offered 25% discount to renew with them for another 12mths , though I haven't rang them up yet to see if they will offer me a higher discount.)

Also considering the Bord Gais Standard Electricity 32% + €160 credit plan.

(I've never been with either Bord Gais or SSE Airtricity before.)
 
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Penny Pincher said:
I have MCC01 24hr meter (though a smart meter is installed) and I want to stay as I am ie. on 'Standard' Electricity Plans.
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Have you verified for sure that not going to a smart plan is the best value for your specific usage by uploading your smart meter data to EnergyPal?

EnergyPal.ie

Use smart meter data, visualise your energy usage. Take control of your energy costs with EnergyPal.ie! Compare and find the best energy plans based on smart meter data - all for free. Start saving money and optimizing your energy consumption today
www.energypal.ie www.energypal.ie

Smart Meter Usage | Electricity Usage Monitor | ESB Networks

View your smart meter usage with ESB Networks, access daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly electricity data, and manage your energy efficiently online.
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ClubMan said:
Have you verified for sure that not going to a smart plan is the best value for your specific usage by uploading your smart meter data to EnergyPal?
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I think the question most people here are asking is it worth switching in case they suddenly start hiking the prices up once you go to the smart plan, given that there's no going back. And I suspect the answer is nobody knows as we don't have a silver ball.
 
Elcato , as Meat Loaf would say " you took the words right outta my mouth". Electricity providers can , unfortunately just not be trusted , once they've trapped you and enabled your smart meter and signed you to a smart meter tariff there's no going back, its a smart meter tariff going forward or nothing. Can't understand how the CRU allowed this.
 
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When switching providers,
can anyone clarify if Yuno is the only company that Automatically activates your smart meter, without giving you the option to decline doing so?

Does any other company (other than SSE Airtricity as highlighted by @ Des Pondent previously), ask or mention about 'activating' your smart meter when you are switching over to them as a new customer?
 
Penny Pincher said:
Does any other company (other than SSE Airtricity as highlighted by @ Des Pondent previously), ask or mention about 'activating' your smart meter when you are switching over to them as a new customer?
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In my experience shopping around - especially using EnergyPal - it's clear which tariffs are smart plans (MCC12/MCC16) and which are either non-smart "legacy" 24 hour (MCC01) or day/night (MCC02) plans. If the plan is a smart one and you're currently on MCC01 or MCC02 then switching will involve activating the smart meter and moving to MCC12 or MCC16.
 
As far as I can see from EnergyPal, Yuno only offer smart plans which might explain why switching to them causes smart meter activation if you're currently on MCC01/MCC02?

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Penny Pincher said:
I'm happy to stick with the Standard 24 hour rate plans for now as my usage is spread across the whole day.
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I had long assumed smart plans weren't for me as I work from home most of the time and usually timed the laundry / dishwasher during the day as that was more convenient. After putting 12 months of usage data into EnergyPal I found that a smart plan was 11% cheaper overall.

In time, there will only be smart plans available (likely achieved towards the end by non-smart plans becoming ever more expensive), particularly with dynamic pricing on the way.
 
ClubMan said:
I have a night immersion and storage heaters and most of my usage (up to 60-70%) is at night.
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If more than 50% of your usage is at night you are going to hugely save. A few years ago I lived in an apartment where the meter broke and got stuck in night mode. It cut my bills by about 2/3. And then I couldn't get the replacement meter in because I didn't have a key to the hard-to-locate meter box, and nobody was in when KN Circet arrived to replace it (how bad).

Peak hours for ToU plans are only 2hrs per day 5-7pm, so if you are a small household it might well be possible to engineer eating at different hours or batch cooking earlier or later and only using the microwave. I don't have a wet system either (house is full of panel and storage heaters but most of them were broken when I arrived so I had the -also broken- gas fire to an external propane tank removed from the fireplace and heat the house with a powerful multifuel stove.

Nightsaver plans were originally designed for households with storage heaters and immersions on timers just like yours, but they were always a small part of the customer base & until the concept of charging EVs came along, not really catered heavily for.
 
It should be pointed out that when using Energypal, after upload of the annual data file for electricity only, it only shows smart plans by default. You need to add the Day/Night plans by clicking on the Plan Type under Filter Plans tab and adding the extra plan(s) there. The results clearly show which are the smart and which are not. In my case the Day/Night with BGE is the best but I would have missed it if I hadn't added the plan type to the results.
 
Why can't you go back? There's this accepted belief thst once committed youre not going back?

I can break a fixed rate on a mortgage dont really see why you can't be returned to the standard meter. I get its a smart meter but it also operates as a standard meter.
 
Persia said:
Why can't you go back?
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I haven't seen any clear answer to this question. I seem to recall the CRU saying that it wasn't a regulatory issue. But it seems that no service provider allows one to switch a meter from MCC12/MCC16 to MCC01/MCC02.
 
Someone here claims to have received something from the CRU stating that a meter cannot be switched back to MCC01/MCC02 once switched to MCC12/MCC16.


Below is the response I received on this matter from the CRU in July of 2023

Thank you for your email. When a smart meter is installed, it remains on the existing “meter configuration code” (MCC). For example, a customer on a flat rate tariff before the smart meter is installed, is on MCC01. If the customer wishes to move to a time of use tariff, the meter needs to switch to a different MCC (either MCC12 or MCC16), in order to send the necessary consumption information for billing purposes.

Once the MCC is changed to either MCC12 or MCC16, it cannot revert back to the original MCC01. However, this does not necessarily prevent the customer from moving back to a flat-rate tariff. There is nothing stopping energy suppliers from offering customers on MCC12 or MCC16 a flat rate tariff. A number of suppliers in the market offer the same flat rate tariff to customers, whether they are on MCC01, MCC12 or MCC16.
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