Why we’re calling for the smart meter rollout to be extended to 2023

Consumer experience is paramount to the rollout’s success

This morning, I spoke to BBC Breakfast about our call for the government to extend the smart meter rollout deadline by 3 years, to 2023.

Smart meters — a new type of energy meter — have a huge part to play in modernising Great Britain’s energy infrastructure. And they’ll bring a raft of positive changes to consumers compared to the current old-style meters, including:

• providing accurate bills without people having to submit a meter reading
• new ways of topping up credit for prepay customers — for example, online, through apps, or automatically when credit drops to a certain point.
• smart meters also enable smart products — such as smart washing machines and electric vehicles — to operate on the smart grid. This means people can automatically set certain household items to charge or turn on and off allowing them to benefit from cheaper energy at certain times of the day.

The rollout’s success is key to achieving these and other benefits. We know 80% of people who have had a smart meter installed are happy with them.

Consumer satisfaction with their smart meter installation

However, in 2017 people came to the Citizens Advice consumer helpline with over 3,000 smart meter issues.

The current 2020 deadline is fast-approaching, meaning suppliers have to install smart meters at an increasingly unrealistic pace. With 42 million smart meters still to be installed, we’re concerned that the time pressure caused by the current rollout deadline will lead to a poorer quality installation experience and risks reduced value for money for consumers.

The smart meter-related problems most frequently reported to us include:

• first generation smart meters (known as SMETS1 meters) losing their smart functionality when consumers switch
• aggressive sales practices from suppliers trying to get smart meters installed
• installation problems, such as the meter not fitting in the space available
• customers still having to submit their meter readings manually despite having a smart meter installed.

Frequency of the 5 most common issue categories in a 6-month period

We’re concerned that these problems mean fewer consumers will choose to have a smart meter installed. This means more people could miss out on the benefits of smart meters.

The government must extend the rollout deadline to 2023 so these issues can be fixed. This would enable suppliers to roll out the remaining 42 million meters in a way that gives the best possible consumer experience. If the deadline is not extended then consumer confidence in this programme will continue to be undermined, making it much harder to deliver.

As the statutory energy consumer representative, it’s also vital that we have up-to-date information on costs so we’re able to properly scrutinise the rollout on behalf of consumers. The most recent cost benefit analysis was published in 2016. Since then, the rollout programme has changed significantly. The government needs to publish more up to date information on costs.

We want smart technology to work for consumers. Extending the rollout of the programme to 2023, and providing clearer information on costs, are 2 simple steps the government can take to help make this rollout better for consumers.