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The rollout of smart meters to energy customers in the UK “has the capacity to destroy trust and confidence” in the sector, according to the chief executive of Electricity North West.
Speaking last night at the Utility Week Lobby event at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Steve Johnson warned: “It’s got a real capacity to cause difficulty and is something I’m concerned about. It has a huge capacity to go wrong.”
He added: “The complexity of what’s going to be done is huge and this has a huge capacity to destroy trust and confidence.”
His view was supported by the Ombudsman Services’ chief ombudsman Lewis Shand Smith, who told delegates it is going to be a “very rough ride between now and the end of the rollout”.
He stated the fact that it is a retailer led rollout will make the programme less efficient, but also stated that the number of complaints during the rollout is likely to spike.
“The point where people make a complaint is when they get a new meter. They get a final meter read when they get a new meter and there’s a real inconsistency.
“So the period between now and the end of the rollout is going to be a rough ride for the industry itself. It’s an area where we need to be open and honest with consumers as it happens.”
However, Shand Smith did state that once the technology has been installed, the number of complaints from customers is set to fall.
“Around 75 per cent of complaints are about inaccurate bills bit once fitted, smart meters will reduce that.”
More than 50 million smart meters are due to be fitted into houses across the UK by the end of 2020.
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