£13.5BN SMART METERS FIASCO
Costly rollout delayed FOUR YEARS ++ Millions of devices plagued by glitches ++ And guess what, you’re footing bill
THE rollout of smart meters has been delayed by four years, ministers admitted last night.
In an embarrassing climbdown, they announced that families will now have until 2024 to install one of the devices.
The scheme has been so shambolic that only half of homes will have a smart meter by the original 2020 deadline and the estimated cost has soared by £2.5billion to £13.5billion.
Only two million of the 15million properties with the devices have models that automatically allow customers to switch supplier.
The delay shows the Government has ‘finally recognised reality’, according to Gillian Guy of Citizens advice. ‘This new deadline gives suppliers time to fix ongoing technical problems and make sure customer service isn’t sidelined as the rollout continues,’ she said.
Smart meters send readings to suppliers and are supposed to encourage households to reduce their energy consumption – saving money and the environment. But
families are paying around £10 a year more through their bills to fund the rollout and are not expected to save cash until 2022.
Lily Green, of energy experts Look After My Bills, said: ‘At last the Government has faced up to the truth and admitted that the smart meter rollout is years behind. It’s been an open secret in the energy industry that the deadline will be pushed back. Suppliers are miles off from installing them in all homes.’
Customers can refuse to have a smart meter, but firms face fines if they have not done enough to promote the devices. This has led to concerns that energy giants have resorted to ‘blackmail’.
Aggressive practices include limiting the best tariffs to those with smart meters. Households have complained of technical issues, with many saying their device had stopped working after switching supplier. Another common issue is broken display screens.
The Government initially said every household and business must have a smart meter by 2020. But it quietly backtracked on that pledge in the 2017 Queen’s Speech by saying the meters needed only to be ‘offered’ by that time.
The new 2024 deadline is the first time ministers have appeared to admit the initial target was too ambitious.
Yesterday’s announcement came from Andrea Leadsom’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. It estimates customers will not begin to make savings from smart meters until 2022 and they will gain only £36 a year by 2034. It said suppliers will be required to meet strict annual targets after 2020, with the aim that at least 85 per cent of homes will have a new device by 2024.
Citizens Advice and the Daily Mail have long called for the rollout to be slowed down. Mrs Guy added: ‘We’ve seen some energy companies use aggressive techniques to try to persuade people to have smart meters fitted as soon as possible to meet the existing timeline.
‘It’s also apparent the cost of the rollout is escalating, and the public are picking up the tab through their energy bills.
‘People will still benefit in the long run, but today’s cost-benefit analysis shows focusing on speed hasn’t worked.’
Citizens Advice Scotland energy spokesman Dr Jamie Stewart said: ‘Citizens Advice Scotland has been calling for this extension for years and we are pleased the government has listened. It’s more important to get this done right than to get it done quickly.’
Climate change minister Lord Duncan insisted the energy system was already cheaper, greener and more efficient because of smart meters.
‘Replacing traditional gas and electricity meters is a vital upgrade to our national energy infrastructure,’ he said.
‘We remain on track for suppliers to offer every home a smart meter by the end of next year, but to maintain momentum beyond 2020 we are proposing strict yearly installation targets.’
Robert Cheesewright of Smart Energy GB, the firm set up to promote the devices, said: ‘The financial and environmental benefits for households and the country far outweigh the costs by billions of pounds.’
The smart meter policy was launched by then-energy secretary Chris Huhne in July 2010.
MONTH after month, we have been reporting how the ‘Big Six’ gas and electricity suppliers cajole customers into accepting smart meters, which automatically transmit meter readings.
Now we discover the full extent of this vast IT fiasco as the rollout of these benighted devices is delayed by four years and the cost rockets from £11billion to £13.5billion.
Energy firms forced by Government to encourage the take-up of smart meters have resorted to underhand tactics. These range from misleading letters suggesting the new meters are compulsory to offering the cheapest tariffs only to those who sign up.
And the benefit? Consumers currently paying an average of £10 a year via bills to fund the scheme will see no savings at all until 2022. And after that they’ll save £36 a year – but only by 2034!
The result has been misery for thousands of users whose meters go ‘dumb’, or find themselves stuck with an energy supplier because their glitch-prone first generation meters – by far the most common – cannot cope with the switch.
Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom may be new to the job. But she needs to get a grip of this debacle – fast.