Smart meters, which will be rolled out to all domestic and smaller business energy consumers by the end of the decade, will be open to abuse by energy companies and could even lead to higher bills, according to a powerful committee of MPs.

The new and sophisticated meters, which give real-time readings of energy consumption, should be regulated more tightly, a report by the public administration committee has found.

Savings made by suppliers as a result of the installation of smart meters might not be passed on to business electricity and business gas customers, and the market could not be relied on to drive down prices, the report found.

All domestic consumers and small business energy customers will have smart meters installed by 2019, while large business will have ‘advanced’ smart meters installed by April 2014.

The report follows claims by consumer campaign group Which? that the government was not overseeing the installation of smart meters with enough vigour. It called for the rollout of the technology to be halted until the government could guarantee that bills for domestic and business energy customers would not skyrocket.

Margaret Hodge, chair of the public administration committee, said the government would have to do more to ensure that business energy customers benefited from the changeover to smart meters.

“Consumers will have to pay suppliers for the costs of installing and operating smart meters through their energy bills and no transparent mechanism presently exists for ensuring that savings to the supplier are passed on,” Mrs Hodge said.

“The track record of energy companies to date does not inspire confidence that this will happen.

“The government is relying on competition in the market to drive down prices. But, as has been previously reported by Ofgem, the energy market does not currently operate as an effective competitive market,” she said.

“The department [of energy and climate change] should clearly set out what energy suppliers’ responsibilities will be for engaging with consumers to deliver the benefits of smart meters; and how they will be held accountable to both the department and consumers,” she added.

Energy Minister Charles Hendry said there would be no further “dither and delay” to the rollout of smart meters despite the committee’s finding, saying the government would ensure that there would be sufficient “ministerial oversight and safeguards” built into the scheme.

Julian Morgan, managing director of the Energy Advice Line, the UK’s leading price comparison and switching service for businesses, renewed calls for a watchdog to ensure reforms to the energy market, such as the introduction of smart meters, actually benefited business energy customers.

“Unfortunately, business electricity and business gas customers have lost faith in energy suppliers due to their behaviour in the past,” Mr Morgan said.

“Suppliers do not have a great record for always acting in the best interests of their business energy customers, so the government needs to ensure that all reforms to the energy market, including the rollout of smart meters, have teeth.

”We believe a regulatory body is needed to oversee the introduction of this technology and ensure that business gas and business electricity customers benefit from any savings that suppliers make in the cost of delivering energy.”

The Energy Advice Line is the only independent price comparison and switching service in the UK designed exclusively for businesses.  Firms can view the five most competitive energy offers from the UK’s leading suppliers online, compare prices against their renewal quotation and switch at the click of a button.

The Energy Advice Line’s expert team can also offer advice on how to switch suppliers, as well as a renewal reminder service to ensure you do not get caught in an expensive business energy rollover contract.

For more information visit www.energyadviceline.org.uk

Centrica today announcing massive profits for a second year running with further growth in British Gas Business; profit up 25% on average over the past five years. Following their annoucement in November last year of an increase in prices;

“British Gas has begun notifying its customers that it will raise domestic tariffs for both gas and electricity by an average of 7% on 10 December 2010″.

For business energy users it has been a similar story and this goes to prove that it has never been more important to compare business electricity and business gas prices and switch to a cheaper alternative. There are a number of business energy comparison sites available like energyadviceline.org.uk who can help you check your rates and switch your business electricity or business gas supplier.

As we know British Gas Business make significant profit on rolling clients over to expensive renewal offers and have a very ‘convenient’ term in their conditions where they can deem a renewal letter being delivered to the customer on them proving that they sent it…which is all to relaxed a condition from where I’m sitting. Once this is done there is no undoing of the contract, how ever you might protest and show that you did not receive notification British Gas have your next year’s contract all nicely tied up at probbably an extortinate rate and you can do nothing about it…Ofgem’s teeth have been pulled!

Or have they?  Ofgem should use this as an opportunity to launch a full competition enquiry into the retail energy market as there will be any number of supporters for them to do this…but will they?