Re Cup of tea
I've got PV - when its proper sunny I do things that need a lot of hot water - like brewing and cleaning my brewing equipment, or as I have a large garden cook shitloads of jam and chutneys, or just heating my hot water etc. All for free. Now with a truly smart meter that lets me know when electricity is cheap I can, with very little automation do the washing, tumble drying (when the weather is shit), heat the hot water all for whatever the lowest overnight price is - or if it doesnt go down to the required value I can program it to run or not if its urgent.
As I said earlier this will have to be achieved by my own induction loop and raspberryPi OCR of the smart meter and a few switches and solenoids. For around about £250 I'm guestimating it will pay for itself in a year - I saved over £500 a year by using PV 'intelligently'. I've even got a low power kettle for low light days!
These meters are not for the consumer but by christ we should do everything to make sure they dont get away with this crap. Though I do wonder if they will 'advise' the government that all white goods need to be made manual only!