Smart meter deadline to be missed again
Fresh chaos as ministers warned 85% rollout target is unrealistic
MINISTERS are facing another smart meters fiasco after an energy industry body warned that the latest deadline for the device rollout will be missed again.
Energy UK, which represents suppliers, said there was no prospect of the Government’s target for 85 per cent of homes to have a device by 2024 being met.
This is despite the deadline being delayed by four years already.
In a leaked letter to Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom’s department, the trade association said its members were being set up for failure, because ‘at best’ just 68 per cent would have a smart meter by 2024, it has claimed.
The organisation, which counts the Big Six energy giants as members, said suppliers could be hit with fines despite the situation being ‘outside of their control’.
Its comments are a fresh embarrassment for the Government, with the shambolic smart meter rollout already far behind schedule and £2.5billion over budget.
Smart meters send readings to suppliers and are supposed to encourage households to reduce their energy consumption – saving money and helping the environment.
Customers can refuse them, but firms face fines if they have not done enough to promote the meters.
Ministers originally pledged that every home in the country would have one of the devices by 2020. But amid mounting concerns about suppliers’ attempts to promote them and technical problems, the Government backtracked in 2017.
It said meters only needed to be ‘offered’ by 2020. In fact, only half of homes are set to have a meter by next year and the cost has soared from £11billion to £13.5billion.
And in a further climb-down two months ago, a document published by the business, energy and industrial strategy department abandoned the 2020 target altogether and admitted the rollout had been delayed. It said energy firms should now have until 2024 to give 85 per cent of families a smart meter.
This was despite its own admission that only 39 per cent of households without a meter were interested in getting one.
A report commissioned by Energy UK found only one in eight suppliers would be likely to meet the new 85 per cent target, because government officials had not taken into account the ‘shrinking base of non-smart customers’.
It added a more realistic ‘but still over-optimistic’ target for the sector was 68 per cent coverage. In the leaked letter, Energy UK told the Government: ‘There is the prospect that suppliers will face significant financial penalties for non-compliance of legal obligations as a result of factors outside of their control.’ Citizens Advice and the Daily Mail have long called for a slower rollout rather than rushing it.
Aggressive practices used by suppliers to distribute devices include limiting the best tariffs to those with smart meters. Meanwhile households have complained of technical issues, with many saying devices stopped working after switching supplier.
Peter Earl, of comparethemarket.com, said: ‘At the current installation rate the smart meter programme will fall well short of the revised 2024 deadline. Fanciful targets for installation rates and a botched rollout have undermined the public’s faith in a programme that should, in theory, lead to more efficient and affordable energy costs for households across the country.’
The Government was unable to comment as it is bound by pre-election purdah rules.