‘No one believes in smart meter timetable’: Utilita

The energy industry needs a timetable for the smart meter rollout it believes in, as “no one believes it will be completed by 2020”, Utilita managing director William Bullen has insisted.

At an Energy and Climate Change Committee (ECCC) hearing, energy suppliers expressed concern at a proposed measure to extend the energy secretary’s power to intervene in the smart meter rollout to ensure the timely delivery of the programme.

The government’s draft legislation on energy, currently undergoing pre-legislative scrutiny, will extend the power from 2018, when it is currently due to expire, to 2023.

The extension is required due to a number of delays to the programme which have pushed back the end of the rollout until 2020.

Bullen said he doesn’t see the pick-up in the rate of smart meter installation that is necessary to achieve the 2020 deadline. He warned that the SMETS2 specification for smart meters which will be used in the main rollout “will stifle innovation” but said smart meters themselves “have a lot to offer”.

EDF Energy’s head of customer policy and regulation Paul Delamere told the committee that the company has concerns about whether the measure undermines the nature of “independent regulation”.

Delamere said: “While we have no issue with the ability of the secretary of state to intervene in the smart meter rollout, we find it difficult to see why that power should be extended so far into the future, three years after the target date for completion has ended.

“What will the circumstances be like in 2020 and how will those powers be used? That’s very uncertain.

“We have no problem with the secretary seeking to renew those powers in 2020 in that context, right now that doesn’t really seem to be justified.”

Last month big six supplier SSE called for a 20 per cent reduction in the smart meter rollout target to 80 per cent coverage by 2020 “in order to protect the net benefits for customers.”