Skills shortfall before smart meter rollout

Gary Cottrell, manager at Utility Networks asks if industry is ready for next year’s smart meter challenge – and the continuing demands of the smart meter industry in the future.

The smart metering rollout is due to start at the end of 2015, a colossal task which has been in the making since 2010, promising £18.7 billion in savings over 20 years.  

Government’s target is that all homes will have a smart meter by the end of 2020. It’s a challenging task and it is questionable whether industry is on track.

One of the biggest tasks to be undertaken to support smart metering is training and recruiting the high volume of installers which will be required to meet the demands of rollout.

In government’s second annual progress report on the roll-out of smart meters, published in December 2013, it was stated that ‘suppliers are planning ahead’ on training and recruitment.

More recently however, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Energy Costs report entitled ‘Smart Metering – Conditions for a successful roll out’, listed training and resourcing as a remaining risk.

“A robust and realistic delivery programme needs to be in place for the training, resourcing and logistic planning of the field support,” said the report.

This resonates with Utility Networks’ (UN) own experience. With just over twelve months to go until roll out begins, UN surveyed energy suppliers to find out how the industry is meeting the associated demands.

Our research shows that energy companies are preparing, but that there is a shortage of enough trained installers with the technical requirements needed to safely install both domestic (household) & commercial (business) smart meters. In other words installers who are dual fuel trained.

One of our respondents said: “We aim to train all existing Meter Operators to be dual fuel where there is both the desire and capability; approximately 60% of our current workforce is dual fuel trained.  We plan to either recruit additional installers as dual fuel trained or train in-house.”

But the leap required from the current meter provision to the introduction of smart meters is quite significant and our research suggests that currently, there is a shortage of skilled trades’ people to carry-out the installation safety.

The ideal tradesperson to install these smart meters will already be practising and wanting to up-skill to a smart metering accreditation.

The good news is that a smart meter training framework is in place, with a range of installation qualifications that have been developed by the National Skills Academy and several of the suppliers. The qualifications are accredited by both the gas and electricity regulatory bodies.

Gaining this industry wide acceptance of the new meter installer training accreditation scheme represents a significant achievement. All that’s needed now is more people to train and here there is a daunting challenge.

Early forecasts from the industry (the energy suppliers and their meter operator contractor) forecasted a requirement for an additional 6000 new smart meter installers between 2014 and 2019.

When asked how suppliers will be meeting the extra resource demand for the rollout, one respondent stated: “Where there is geographic alignment we will be offering the opportunity to our Data Retrieval workforce to apply to be trained as Dual Fuel technicians. 

“We will also offer the opportunity to the other colleagues, and recruiting externally; likely on a fixed term contract basis. We will recruit Dual Fuel trained where possible, as well as providing in-house training where required.”

Undoubtedly there will be jobs created via the smart meter rollout, and this will have a positive impact on employment; at least for the short term, but the extent of that impact is difficult to gauge, with some posts being filled by existing staff or through temporary internal transfer.

A further complication is added by the additional skills a good smart meter installer should have on top of their necessary technical knowhow.

In today’s operating environment there are new skills to learn around communication diagnosis, home energy efficiency advice and understanding Wireless and Home Area Networks.

These skills should also be accompanied by good customer service capabilities in order to enhance the customer experience of a smart install, making sure they get the best out of it.

In time, installers will also need to become trainers themselves, bringing on the next wave of recruits and creating a sustainable skills base for the industry.

This teaching element requires a whole host of skills, and the balance of technical ability and people skills has to be managed carefully to ensure safety is not compromised.

Finally, the industry needs to consider that training does not stop at installers. Programmes will also need to be delivered to the whole spectrum of staff involved in the smart meter rollout, from back office staff to those designing and manufacturing the meters.

No programme of this size has been undertaken in the utilities arena before, the scale of the roll-out will see the installation of over 50 million smart meters by 2020. So while the end goal is clearly defined, and industry appears to be responding, there is still much work to be done.