Change of leadership at DCC

The Data and Communication Company’s new managing director has taken up his post.

Angus Flett officially started in his positions as managing director of the company behind the UK smart meter communications system today (30 January).

He replaces Jonathan Simcock who led the Data and Communications Company (DCC) for the past three years. DCC issued a statement in November last year to announce that Simcock would be stepping down.

Flett moved to DCC from Vodafone where he was senior vice president for global enterprise products. Prior to this he was managing director of customer services and customer relationship management at BT

Welcoming Flett on board, DCC chairman, Richard McCarthy said that as the company enters “a new phase” alongside the ramp up of smart meter installations it will change to become “an industrial scale telecommunications and data management operation”.

He added: “Angus has extensive experience in the IT and telecommunications sectors where he has successfully managed operations in consumer-facing, business to business and wholesale markets. He brings a proven track-record of running and developing service portfolio, customer-facing and product management businesses.”

DCC is responsible for the data communications system behind the UK’s national rollout of smart meters to homes and businesses. The company suffered several set backs in the run up to launching its system, falling back from an original go live date in December 2015 to an eventual launch in November 2016.

Furthermore, Utility Week has been informed by one supplier that further work will be needed to the current DCC system before they can roll out SMETS 2 meters with smart functionality. This could cause further constriction of programme timescales and the extended rollout of SMETS 1 meters, which have limited smart functionality.

A DCC spokesperson rebuffed these concerns however. They said: “The DCC went live in November 2016 and is ready to support energy suppliers to install and operate the next generation SMETS2 smart meters on the national network. It is a matter for individual suppliers to determine their meter roll-out plans.”

Despite all delays and remaining challenges, McCarthy said that Simcock’s time at the helm of DCC had been “hugely successful”.

“Jonathan had led DCC from start-up mode at Licence award to delivering go-live for the GB-wide smart metering communications service – a hugely significant milestone in the delivery of the overall smart metering implementation programme,” commented McCarthy. “His leadership of the DCC programme and business has been nothing short of outstanding.”