The consumer association, Facua-Consumidores en Acción, has criticized the new electricity meters for giving burglars the advantage of knowing when a dwelling is occupied or not.
The new meters, explains Facua, have a LED light which blinks at differing speeds depending on the electricity being consumer in the dwelling. Thus if the light blinks rapidly it alerts thieves that the house is occupied or viceversa.
Moreover, the meters are located in public areas, thus exposing the service users and their homes.
The Association claims the Ministry of Industry has ignored complaints about the meters collected by the National Commission of Markets and Competition and by Endesa, and criticises the Government for not taking any action.
As a result of the complaints received by Facua, the Data Protection Agency has confirmed that the new meters encourage burglaries, especially when dwellings are empty during holidays. The Agency also confirms that the meters publicise information about occupancy in real time.
The Energy Commission demanded modifications to the meters back in 2012 and last year the National Police Corps included modifications to the meters in its recommendations for preventing burglaries.
One of the suggestions is that consumers should be able to disable the LED light
