The year is 3519 – and you finally have a fix for your ‘dumb’ smart energy meter

The fix for “dumb” smart meters will take more than 1,500 years at the current rate, it emerged this week. Millions of the earliest version of smart meter lost the ability to send readings automatically and to display energy usage in real-time when a household switched energy supplier. There are more than 14 million devices at risk of this issue.

The process to fix these devices, which will involve them being upgraded to connect with a national communications network, began in May and will end next year.

But this week, Richard McCarthy, of the Data Communications Company (DCC), which is in charge of the network, admitted to MPs that just 4,500 meters had been successfully connected.

This means there would have to be a rapid acceleration of upgrades to meet the Government’s target and avoid the old meters needing to be replaced.

However, earlier fears that large numbers would fail to connect to the network have apparently failed to materialise, with only two of the 4,500 meters needing to be replaced entirely.

Mr McCarthy said connecting firstgeneration meters to the network was “a priority for the DCC” and that the company was putting those that had lost their smart functions at the front of the queue.

He explained that the meters that have so far been connected are “giving readings and are interoperable, so the consumer can switch energy supplier without losing smart capability”. He added: “This solution is now proven and the number of firstgeneration meters connected to our network will now grow quickly.” The meters are being upgraded in three stages. The first became eligible in May, the second in September and the final group will be ready in December. The £13.5bn smart meter roll-out is a major part of the Government’s strategy to hit net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. They allow households to track their energy usage better and enable a “smart grid” that will make national energy usage more efficient. But consumer trust in the devices has been damaged by the “going dumb” issue, which has frustrated millions of households. Others feel bullied by their supplier to get one as the energy firms face fines if they do not do all they can to install them. Although the smart meters are not compulsory, climate change minister Lord Duncan of Springbank told MPs earlier this week that the cost of maintaining a traditional meter would soon become so high that “you would have to really love your traditional meter” to keep it. A spokesman for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: “Smart meter technology will work to the financial benefit of consumers and will help move the country towards the smart tech systems of the future.”

14m The number of smart meters that could fail to work properly when switching energy supplier