Smart meter delay should be used to ‘reset expectations’

The delay to the smart meter rollout due to coronavirus should be used to try and iron out the technological issues that have plagued the scheme, Octopus Energy’s chief executive has said.

According to the latest statistics published last month by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), as of the end of 2019 16.5 million smart and advanced meters were operating in Great Britain. In 2019 alone 4.5 million were installed.

Speaking during Utility Week’s latest #AskUsAnything webinar on the effects the pandemic is having on the energy retail market this morning (24 April) panellists were asked for their views on how the smart meter rollout will be impacted.

Current lockdown measures mean engineers are only allowed in a consumer’s home in emergency cases, such as if they are off supply. This means that unless the installation of a smart meter will ensure a household stays on supply, the rollout has had to be paused.

However Jackson suggested that the time can be used effectively, namely that the industry can iron out the technical issues that have been seen in the field.

He said: “Realistically coronavirus might introduce a 6-12 month slowdown, because it’s harder to get engineers into people’s houses. In the grand context of the smart meter programme, we had longer delays due to the technology issues much earlier in the programme than we are going to experience through coronavirus.

“I think the timing of the coronavirus crisis may enable us to take a bit of a breather and resolve some of those technology issues now that we are out in the field. I think classically a lot of the issues people see with smart meters now, such as with connectivity and data, are ones which you couldn’t have identified at the specification and the lab testing on the small-scale stage.

“Now we have got real world volume trials, particularly in SMETS2, of what happens when people switch, what happens when you’ve had a variety of issues – we can use this period when there’s less intensity on the installation side to really resolve a lot of the business as usual tech issues so that when we are able to gear back up in the field we can have a smoother, more successful,  cost efficient programme ultimately for customers.”

Jackson added that he hopes the industry can use the opportunity to “reset expectations”.

Meanwhile Energy UK’s interim chief executive, Audrey Gallacher, referenced the difficulty of getting many consumers to accept the devices and said the government needs to send a clear message after the pandemic that the rollout is to continue.

She said: “Now more than ever we can see the benefits of smart meters, they’ve always been a massive enabler for behaviour change in contributing to carbon reduction, but I think this crisis has really shown us the benefits, especially on the prepayment side with remote top-ups. They have proved themselves in that respect, the challenge is we need to continue rolling them out.

“There’s going to have to be a clear message from government that smart meters are coming, that they’re safe. We don’t know what the impact will be on the rollout, already people were a bit reluctant to take a day off work. There’s a real issue here about making sure that we get clear messaging that they’re coming.”

Gallacher called for a more sensible policy framework surrounding the rollout, especially in terms of targets that have been known to be unrealistic.

“Let’s just stop all that, let’s have a sensible framework with proper targets recognising some of the challenges we have got and a clear strong message on the benefits of smart and hopefully we will get it done,” she added.

You can listen to the full webinar here.