Deadline delay will see more ‘dumb’ smart meters fitted

SMART meters that go “dumb” when customers switch providers will continue being installed as the Government plans to extend a deadline.

Smart meters display a household’s usage in pounds and pence and send readings automatically to the supplier.

However, more than half lose these functions when a customer switches providers. The roll-out of a new type of meter, which is designed to connect to a national network and should not suffer the issue, could be delayed for two months, meaning hundreds of thousands more first-generation meters may now be installed.

The original deadline for installing the original smart meters was July, but was delayed to October late last year.

The Government has now launched a six-week consultation that proposes moving this date to December, prompting fears that the plan to offer every household in Britain a smart meter by 2020 could be scrapped.

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy insisted the Government is still committed to this deadline. She said: “While energy suppliers have started rolling out second-generation smart meters, we want to ensure a smooth transition for consumers, so we are consulting on extending the deadline for first-generation installations.”

The Government argues that the £11billion roll-out will reduce bills, but experts warn the meters were a barrier to saving money. According to Electralink, the analyst, around 280,000 smart meters are installed every month, but only a few hundred of the, secondgeneration meters have been installed.

Sacha Deshmukh, the chief executive of Smart Energy GB, the body set up to promote the roll-out, said all first-generation meters would be enrolled into the national network, where they will become interoperable between suppliers.