Standard content for Members only

To continue reading this article, please login to your Utility Week account, Start 14 day trial or Become a member.

If your organisation already has a corporate membership and you haven’t activated it simply follow the register link below. Check here.

Become a member

Start 14 day trial

Login Register

Smart meter re-visits could cost each supplier £100m

Each big six supplier faces additional smart meter rollout costs of more than £100 million if just 5 per cent of homes have to be revisited. That's the view of one consortium bidding for the smart metering communications services contract.

Speaking at an SBGI conference in London yesterday, David Green, sales and marketing director of smart metering at Smart Reach, said that even if smart meters were installed and up and running first time in 95 per cent of homes, secondary visits to the remaining 1.45 million could cost £745 million.

“That’s a significant impact on large suppliers, given their margins,” said Green.

Green claimed the consortium had scored a 99 per cent first time success rate when connecting 800,000 smart meters in Nevada.

Smart Reach is made up of Arqiva, BT, BAE Systems Detica and Sensus.