‘Chaotic’ smart meter roll-out to cost each household extra £100
THE Government’s smart meter rollout is in chaos and could end up costing every household £100 more than first expected, spending watchdogs have said.
Multiple failings, including delays and technical problems, threaten to add nearly £3billion to the cost of the project, according to a National Audit Office (NAO) study published today.
Originally, ministers had said the total cost would be £11billion, or £374 per household, paid for by consumers through higher energy bills.
However, an additional £3 billion cost would mean an extra £93 charge on each household, effectively wiping out five years’ worth of savings from the devices, the report suggested. According to the NAO, smart meters are predicted to save each household an average of £18 a year.
The report is the most critical assessment of the smart meter programme so far, warning it is fraught with technical problems that have been ignored by the Government.
The UK will not meet the 2020 deadline by which every home should be offered a smart meter, it said.
It also pointed out an unknown percentage of first generation meters may need replacing as they cannot be upgraded to stop them “going dumb” when people switch to a better deal.
Richard Neudegg, the head of regulation at uswitch.com, said: “As many as 70 per cent of the 12.5million smart meters installed so far will go ‘dumb’ if an energy customer switches supplier. That means there’s a risk that up to nine million may need to be ripped off the wall and replaced at considerable cost and inconvenience to households.”
It warned that the installation of second generation meters in the North of England and Scotland was lagging behind the rest of the UK due to problems with communications integration.
Experts last night called for the rollout to be delayed, but Claire Perry, the energy minister, told The Daily Telegraph there were no plans to put it on ice. She said: “Pushing back the roll-out now – as some have suggested – would only delay millions of households from enjoying the substantial benefits of moving to a smarter energy system, and take the wind out of the sails of a roll-out which is adding nearly half a million new meters a month.”
As of the beginning of this month, just 3,000 second generation meters had been installed in the North of England and Scotland, compared with 106,000 in the rest of the UK, it said.
Sir Amyas Morse, the NAO head, said: “Costs are rising, and timescales slipping, but smart meters can still succeed over time. [The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy] has taken most of the decisions that matter on the programme so far. They now need to take responsibility for getting it back on track and protecting the interests of consumers.”