As for discontinuing petrol and diesel vehicle sales from 2030, I understand that this only is for non-hybrid vehicles. Hybrid vehicles can continue to be sold until 2035. One way or another there will still be ICE vehicles on the road until 2050 so the transition to BEVs isn't quite so hurried as the 2030 headline suggests.
Why do you think Smart Meters are being installed?
It's so when demand exceeds supply ,they can switch consumers off.
(they have admitted it. Sort of)
I've had a smart meter for several years and there's no way it could cut off my electricity as it doesn't include any switching capability. The main advantage of the smart meter is that the consumption is reported in half hour time steps so it's easy to change from a flat rate tariff to one which charges acording to the time of day and hence scarcity / abundance of cheaper power. I use the Octopus Go tariff
https://octopus.energy/go/ which costs 5p/kWh between 00.30 and 04.30. It doesn't need a separate meter like the old-fashioned Economy 7 but just uses the smart meter half hourly data. Smart metering and time-of-usage tariffs are one way to spread the peak demand on generation by making it easy and providing incentives to use electricity when it's cheaper.
However, we will also be herded towards electrically-powered heat pumps in order to reduce gas consumption so heating is likely to add to the morning and evening electricity peaks during cold weather. It''s easy to defer the car charging until the middle of the night but coming home from work and sitting in a cold house while waiting for the electricity price to drop won't be popular.
