Ofgem ignored distancing measures for meter roll-out

THE energy watchdog ordered suppliers to keep sending personnel into people’s homes to install smart meters despite social distancing measures outlined by the Government, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

A letter from Ofgem sent on Mar 18 before the formal lockdown prompted a mutiny from energy firms who refused to comply with the order, leading the regulator to backtrack on its advice. The letter, seen by The Telegraph, instructed suppliers to continue with the roll-out of smart meters, despite strict government orders to stay at home and avoid contact with others.

“We were absolutely not going to keep sending technicians into people’s homes,” said one chief executive of an energy firm. “They would have received a letter from our lawyers after this was all over if they had continued to ask us to install smart meters.”

Energy companies were outraged by the muscular tone of the letter, industry sources say, which called on suppliers to stick to the Government’s strict roll-out timetable. Despite deaths across the UK from coronavirus topping 100 that day, Ofgem said that “energy suppliers remain under an obligation to take all reasonable steps to deliver the smart meter roll-out by end 2020”.

The letter added that Ofgem would continue to monitor companies’ compliance, and warned suppliers not to hold off their installation programmes.

The £13billion smart meter roll-out is meant to make households more efficient but has been dogged by problems, with some users complaining of meters failing to work after they switched energy suppliers.

A total of 51million smart meters are meant to be installed by the end of 2024, but the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is considering whether that deadline needs to be extended.

Now, in the latest blow to the delayed programme, Ofgem has conceded that “most suppliers have decided to carry out only emergency metering work” after resistance from the companies tasked with installing the meters.