Smart meters should be opt-out not opt-in, says Eon CEO

Smart meters to “fundamentally” change the energy market

Government should make smart meters “opt-out” rather than “opt-in” to help increase uptake of the devices, Eon chief executive Michael Lewis has insisted.

Smart meters should not be mandatory, he said, but there are things the government can do to encourage customers to take up the meters.

In an interview with Utility Week, he said: “If a customer doesn’t want a smart meter that’s fine, but at the moment we have to convince customers to take a smart meter. We are convinced it’s the right thing to do, but people are still reluctant because they might have to take half a day off work and they don’t see the benefit, but once we have installed one they get it.”

Lewis said he firmly believes in the benefits of smart meters. Despite teething troubles with the roll-out so far, he said the meters will “fundamentally change” the energy market.

“It’s astonishing that in 2017 you have huge numbers of estimated bills,” he said. “We wouldn’t accept that in most other spheres of life.”

While customers will benefit from lower and more accurate bills with smart meters, the number of billing queries that companies handle will “drastically reduce”, Lewis predicts. “The long-term benefit is that people take a keener interest in what they are consuming.”

Read Utility Week’s interview with Michael Lewis here

At the end of August, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy released figures which showed that domestic smart meter installations by large suppliers reached 1.058 million in the three months to the end of June.

The figures revealed a 3 per cent increase on the previous quarter’s tally of 1.027 million. However, the growth in installations was down significantly when compared to the 15 per cent rise seen between the last quarter of 2016 and the first of quarter of 2017.

There have been widespread fears that suppliers will be unable to safely meet the 2020 deadline for the domestic rollout due to failed first-time installations, a lack of qualified installers and problems with the central communications system. During the Queen’s Speech in June, the government revealed plans to extend its power to intervene in the smart meter rollout by five years through to 2025.

A survey conducted by Utility Week in partnership with market research firm Harris Interactive earlier this year found that 13 per cent of consumers with smart meters required more than one visit for installation – more than double the five per cent of figure predicted by BEIS.