Petition bid to stop €500m Linky bill for customers
Consumer group says ‘free’ meters cost too much for no benefit
A consumer group has launched a petition against Linky smart meters saying households will pay an extra €15 a year for 10 years for no benefit.
It adds up to a total bill of €500million paid to power grid operator Enedis under a funding deal for Linky installation that the state auditor Cour des Comptes said was “generously” loaded in favour of the company.
UFC Que Choisir called on people to sign its petition refusing to pay as the government said when Linky was introduced that there would be no cost to the consumer.
It wants electricity users to have free access to the information from the Linky meters to help them cut energy bills and for the Enedis contract to be renegotiated.
Information from the meters is very limited – it only gives a daily total of energy used in kilowatt hours and not in euros – and does little to help consumers cut down their usage.
Que Choisir is aiming for 100,000 signatures on the petition which can be signed by anyone, with no need to join the consumer group itself. It had nearly 53,000 signatures this morning.
Enedis started installing Linky meters two years ago in a €5.4bn roll-out and has always said there would be no cost to the consumer, with costs paid for through savings it made in cutting the number of technicians and meter-readers needed as most work can be done at a distance.
Get more information on the Cour des Comptes criticism in the March issue of The Connexion or, online, in an article that is free to read for subscribers.
