Since the start of its deployment in France, the Linky meter has been at the heart of controversy. La Dépêche du Midi takes stock of what the connected box can or cannot do in your home, while a controversy surrounds its use by Enedis to deactivate off-peak devices in water heaters.
35 million Linky smart meters are now deployed in French homes. However, for several years, the connected box has been at the heart of many controversies, in particular concerning its health impact and compliance with the collection of personal consumption data.
The latest controversy to date: a decree which authorizes the managers of the electricity network to suspend the power supply to hot water tanks during the off-peak hours of noon. The role of the smart meter may be marginal, but it is still singled out by some. But how far do the Linky’s powers really go?
Automatic consumption statement
The Linky meter monitors the exact electricity consumption in a household by recording data every month. The reading of consumption is thus done automatically, remotely.
The green box allows households to be billed for their actual consumption, on a monthly basis, and no longer with an annual estimate corrected by a one-off adjustment, as was the case with the old meters.
In addition, Linky allows households to access more precise data concerning their overall consumption (per month, per week, per day, per hour, etc.) and therefore adapt it. These data are accessible on the customer account which can be consulted from a computer, tablet or smartphone.
But these measurements taken by the meter are global. “Linky is unable to know the differentiated consumption of each device or each room. Impossible to know, for example, if you watch a lot of television or how often your oven is running”, assures the customer director of Enedis, Éric Salomon, at Figaro.
Encrypted signal
The Linky meter uses Power Line Carrier (PLC) technology, which is a wired communication mode. It circulates only in the cables of the low voltage electrical network. And not over the Internet. It has nothing to do with radio frequencies, which are radio waves propagating in the ambient air like Wifi or FM radio.
To protect customer privacy, this data is completely encrypted. “We can therefore guarantee that our customers’ data will not be hacked. [piratées, NDLR]“, indicates Éric Salomon to our colleagues.
Remote maintenance
The Linky meter makes it possible to carry out technical operations remotely, which until now required the intervention of a technician at home, such as electrical commissioning, the resolution of certain breakdowns, or even the modification of power.
The fluo green box can also delay the supply of a hot water tank. About 75% of electric cumulus in France are “enslaved”. In other words, they are started automatically by the network during off-peak hours only, for customers who have opted for this type of contract. However, this deactivation is not directly linked to Linky since it was already possible on the old meters. It should also be noted that the customer can manually reset his hot water tank at any time, if he wishes.