You’ve escaped it so far, but in a few months you’ll have no choice but to install it, or you’ll be billed.
They thought they were safe for a while longer, but in the end the axe is coming soon. Starting in 2025, many French people will be forced to install equipment in their homes that they have been opposed to for a long time. If they stick to their position and refuse, they will be billed a certain amount every year. A critical situation to say the least, because the equipment in question is ultimately essential for living in a home. It is the Linky electricity meter from Enedis. This name is probably familiar to you since it has been in the news in recent years.
Some French people are resistant to it for various reasons. Many fear that these smart meters will invade their privacy by collecting detailed information on their consumption habits. Others fear health problems linked to the electromagnetic waves emitted by the famous green boxes. There are also concerns about hidden costs, including increased bills or the cost of replacing non-compatible equipment. These concerns fuel a general distrust of the device, leading some to refuse its installation.
But starting next year, the last holdouts (unless there are technical constraints preventing it) will be billed the cost of the residual reading, which corresponds to the additional costs that consumers must pay if their electricity meter is not communicating, like the old meters. In this case, Enedis must send a technician to manually read the electricity consumption. This service generates this type of cost. Until now, customers who did not want a Linky meter had the option of doing their own reading and communicating it to Enedis once every twelve months, without paying any fees. If they did not do so, since January 1, 2023, they had to pay 9.04 euros every 2 months, or 54.24 euros.
“The precise terms and conditions as well as the amounts invoiced will be set by the CRE (Energy Regulatory Commission n ed.) within the framework of the TURPE 7 pricing system which will come into force from summer 2025″, the Enedis press service told us. According to estimates from Enercoop, a French supplier of electricity from renewable sources, the amount could be “€10.66 excluding VAT, every 2 months (i.e. €64 excluding VAT per year) until the latter is installed”. In any case, this new deadline will concern the 2 million households that are not equipped. For the time being, “37.2 million meters have been deployed, representing an equipment rate of over 94%”, Enedis told us. The long-term objective is to reach 100% in 2025, set by the CRE.