Decc says no regional or street by street smart meter rollout, defends engagement strategy

The department of energy and climate change has reiterated that it will not take a regional or street by street approach to the smart metering rollout and defended its approach to consumer engagement.

Consumer groups have suggested those approaches would be more efficient. Comparisons have been made to the digital TV switchover, and the government has been criticised for not putting more money towards consumer engagement.

Decc officials including secretary of state Ed Davey, permanent secretary Moira Wallace and Phil Wynn Owen, director general of the Decc’s international climate change and energy efficiency group, were questioned on smart meters yesterday by the energy and climate change committee.

Davey said the debate about current levels of smart meter awareness amongst the public was “overplayed”. He said that if people were going to get a smart meter in 2018, they may not necessarily “need to know about it in 2012”.

Moira Wallace said that the mass rollout starts in late 2014. She said Decc was concentrating its available funds on preparation work “rather than spend money as if we were about to start a mass rollout”.

Davey said a street by street approach, unlike TV switchover, would not work because people had different energy suppliers. Wallace said Decc was “not planning to do it regionally” rather the department was “working alongside consumer preferences and the natural asset life of meters”. She said the plan was to “accelerate that [approach] and not have a regional approach that doesn’t fit with electricity and gas”.

Wynn Owen said that with Brussels approval of the smart meter equipment technical specification (smets 1) earlier this month, it was hoped “many of the smart meters being installed at the moment” would be compatible with the EU rules. He estimated some 750,000 early smart meters would be installed by the end of this year.