The MP, who is also a member of the Energy and Climate Change Committee, said at a Praseg and Micropower Council fringe event at the Labour Party conference, that the current deign of the smart meter roll out favours the energy companies.
He said that energy suppliers not only benefit by not having to employ staff to manually read the meters in consumers properties, but that the access to real time data usage will allow them to balance their supplies more effectively.
“The utility company will have a much better idea of how much energy is being used in electricity at any one time and they will actually be able to deal with their balancing arrangements in terms of whether they penalised for buying too much or not enough electricity,” Whitehead added.
“They will be able to balance their purchases and actually save a fortune on penalties on the balancing system.”
However, Josh Robson, political advisor at Energy UK, said: “There is actually an opt in to allow companies to use that data and therefore balance the systems, so I don’t think you’ll see those wholesale benefits.”