“Smart meters cause irritation”

Digital meter readers are gradually becoming mandatory in German households but many residents are unsure how they benefit from the technology, or how safely it treats their power consumption data, Dagmar Fischbach writes for Rheinische Post. “Smart meters” are meant to allow better control of electricity use and will be mandatory in every German household by 2032, Fischbach says. But what's helpful for commercial power customers might make less sense for private households, she writes. “Even if I know that the power for my electric kitchen stove is most expensive around noon, I won’t be able to just skip cooking,” Werner Fliescher of homeowner association Haus und Grund argues.

Read the article in German here.

For more information on “smart” technologies and the energy transition, see the CLEW dossier The digitalisation of the Energiewende.