Energy meter shutdown could push electric bills higher
‘Not a good experience,” Kenny Maclean said about his attempt to upgrade from an old electricity meter system being phased out next month.
The 55-year-old technician, who lives in the village of Ranish on the Isle of Lewis, is one of hundreds of thousands of people rushing to switch away from Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS) meters, which rely on a radio service that will end on June 30.
Experts have warned that the shutdown may have a “potentially devastating” impact on some households, from higher bills to the controls for electric heating and hot water systems going awry.
The engineer who arrived from Maclean’s energy supplier to replace his RTS meter with a smart meter said that he did not know where to fit it. The installer left, promising to come back, but never did.
Maclean called his energy supplier, who promised to phone back in 15 days, but has yet to do so.
The number of trained installers appears to be one problem affecting the switchover. “The guy just wasn’t in any way competent to do the job,” Maclean said.
• Why you need to replace that old RTS energy meter
Figures from the start of last month show that 411,000 people in the UK were then still on RTS meters. Most of them were in Scotland, London or southeast England. The energy industry has estimated that the total number is now between 300,000 and 350,000.
Smart Energy GB, the campaign to engage consumers in the switch to smart meters, said the RTS switch-off could leave households still on the meters “losing control of their heating and hot water”. A spokesman said: “It is therefore crucial that anyone with an RTS meter accepts an upgrade from their supplier now.”
A smart meter
MARTIN PRESCOTT/GETTY IMAGES
The RTS meters work through a radio service operated since the 1980s by the BBC on the Radio 4 long wave signal, controlling the overnight charging of a home’s electric storage heating and hot water.
Ofgem has warned that after the switch-off at the end of June, electric storage heaters may charge at the wrong time of day, potentially leading to higher bills. Energy suppliers may also no longer be able to confirm whether people are using electricity at peak or off-peak times, pushing up electricity prices.
Kenny Cameron, of the heating technology provider Connected Response, said the consequences of the switch-off were unlikely to become clear before September, when the heating season starts. Even if heating systems are not stuck permanently on or off, as feared, he said people who had not switched could be hit with higher bills.
“For 40 years the majority of people with electric storage heaters are on off-peak tariffs, so they have cheap energy at night and more expensive energy in the day,” he said. “Sometimes what happens is people get switched on to a single rate tariff — that is very expensive if you are currently heating your house on off-peak electricity.”
He has heard of people waiting months for their RTS meters to be changed. “It’s taking a very long time,” he said. There are also cases where old meters are proving hard to replace.
Diane Gray, who lives near Cockermouth in Cumbria, was initially told by her supplier that it could not fit a smart meter that would work with her heating system. Then it promised one in June. “I’ve got no idea where it’s going to leave us,” she told the BBC.
Some people have found the switch straightforward. Sam André-Paul, 26, a charity worker who lives in Nottingham, learnt that he had an RTS meter after an email from his energy supplier. “I realised I should deal with it pretty quickly,” he said. The process of having the meter replaced took a month and the power was off for only 40 minutes while it was fitted.
Energy UK said that electricity suppliers were installing more than 1,000 meters per day. “Suppliers have been pulling out all the stops to replace the remaining RTS meters as soon as possible,” a spokesman said.
However, he said that the switch would require customers to respond to suppliers’ attempts to contact them, adding: “It will undoubtedly be challenging to replace all these meters by the June 30 date.”