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The smart meter rollout could be “halted” unless we learn from past mistakes, says Utilitywise.
The consultancy firm also told Utility Week that a full mandatory rollout is “probably not going to be beneficial to everyone”.
Utilitywise strategy director Jon Ferris said: “A full mandatory rollout is probably not going to be beneficial to everyone… A voluntary or scaled back one might have been a more appropriate way to go rather than mandating 55 million meters to be replaced in a fairly aggressive timescale, based on quite optimistic benefits for consumers.
“There is certainly a danger that the way we’ve gone about it, it is going to be obsolete by the time its finished. It happened in the 80s with the Economy 7 rollout that was halted half way through, and I think until we actually complete the rollout, there is always the potential for that to happen.”
His comments follow a difficult year for the rollout after the smart meter networks operator delayed going live until after the final contingency date. The south region finally went live at the beginning of November and then the north region at the end of the same month which now allows suppliers to rollout SMETS2 meters which are fully interoperable.
Ferris added that he is skeptical about the potential benefits to consumers smart meters will bring, as government is “still using quite optimistic assessments compared to other countries”.
“The other aspect is whether at a domestic level there is an ongoing interest, willingness and capability to shift demand away from the peak and how much the benefit of that would be,” he added.
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