Switched supplier? How your meter will stay dumb

Customers whose smart meters have “gone dumb” following a switch will not regain the lost functions if they return to their original energy supplier, Telegraph Money has learnt.

The meters lose the ability to send readings automatically and track energy usage in pounds and pence – two of the key benefits of smart meters – after a supplier switch.

It has now emerged that even if you switch back to the supplier that installed the meter, it will stay dumb.

The discovery comes after Telegraph Money called on the Government to put the brakes on the £11bn roll-out until the switching issue is fixed by a new breed of meters, due to be installed in large numbers by the end of the year.

Bryan Lowe, 76, who lives near Derby, had his meter installed in 2015 by E.On. The following year he switched to EDF Energy for a better deal before switching back to E.On to take advantage of a new tariff in 2017. He had expected to lose smart functionality when he moved to EDF but was surprised to be told by E.On that his meter would stay dumb despite the switch back.

He said: “When you buy an investment they tell you that you may not get your money back. Why can’t there be a warning in all these adverts for smart meters saying that if you switch you might lose your smart functions?”

A spokesman for E.On said it made it clear to customers before a smart meter was fitted that they could lose functions in a switch. She added that the company was currently unable to reconnect to previous customers’ smart meters but that this would be fixed in the future.

A technical expert at Foresight Metering, a smart meter manufacturer, said it should be possible for the meter to be reconnected to a supplier’s system. However, it would depend on various factors, including whether the meter’s sim card was still live and how much software had progressed since the date of installation. He likened it to finding an old iPhone in the cupboard and trying to upgrade it to Apple’s latest operating system.

Last week Labour and Conservative MPs backed our calls for the Government to stop the roll-out until smart meters were fully switchable.

The roll-out of a new type of meter that would not lose functionality after switching was supposed to start this month but has been pushed back twice. Around 2,000 are currently operational in British homes.

The early “dumb” smart meters have been criticised as a barrier to switching, widely accepted as the best way to save money on your bills. These meters will be connected to a national network, theoretically fixing the issue, but this could take until the end of 2019.

Robert Cheesewright of Smart Energy GB, which promotes smart meters, said this network “will enable seamless switching between suppliers”. He added: “Unless you switch more than once a year there’s no need to delay getting a smart meter.”