Digital Energy Meter: Approximately 80,000 household failures contribute to start-up delay | MyGuide

Between March 2021 and November 2022, 8,791 families explicitly refused placement and 70,000 families tacitly refused. Minister Demir indicates that she has little insight into the exact reason for the refusal. This is evidenced by her answers to questions from Staf Aerts (Groen) in the Flemish Parliament.

“Most refusals reach the call center when the customer receives an invitation to transfer. Then the consumer states that they don’t want anyone to come. Fluvius does not explicitly ask the reason for this refusal.

Even when the customer refuses to grant access to the technician on site, this file is recorded as an explicit refusal, without explaining the resident’s motives.”

According to the minister, Fluvius also does not have detailed information on the nearly 70,000 tacit rejections. “These files are still in progress so keep trying to access them,” she says.

Additionally, between April 2021 and August 2021, 726 households also rejected a digital meter because they wanted a wired meter instead of one with wireless connectivity. Indicate a sensitivity to electromagnetic radiation as a motive.

Today, 31 percent of the total number of counters is digital. This is a lower percentage than initially planned. In addition to denying the placement, the Minister put forward a number of reasons for the delay in publication. Quality and safety problems require adjustments, there is a shortage of technicians in the labor market and material delivery problems appear.

Reading advice: Do you have solar panels and an analog meter? With zero depreciation, you’ll have to pay that extra in network costs in 2023.

According to the minister, about 0.5 percent of the approximately 1.1 million digital electricity meters installed do not communicate. If there is insufficient coverage over its own network at the counter location, Fluvius will attempt to connect to a mobile network from the first quarter of 2023 via an external antenna. If the home is located in an area with no coverage outside, Fluvius will continue to operate with periodic meter readings.

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