Out-Law News 1 min. read

MPs warn of potential 'costly failure' of smart meter programme


The UK government should take greater control of the promotion of new 'smart meters' to UK households to ensure the project does not become a "costly failure", a committee of MPs has warned.

The Energy and Climate Change Committee said it does not believe the government's current target of "near universal smart meter rollout will be achieved by 2020" without a change in approach on the basis of a number of problems it had identified.

"While progress has been made since we first looked at the government's smart meter programme in 2013, we do not believe that near universal smart meter rollout will be achieved by 2020," the Committee said in a new report. "Without significant and immediate change to the present policy, the programme runs the risk of falling far short of expectations. At worst it could prove to be a costly failure."

In its report, the Committee identified a number of issues that it said were hampering or could hamper the promotion of smart meters and the success of the smart meter programme. There is a shortage of installation engineers, and a "lack of smart meter interoperability" between the different version of devices being installed by energy suppliers, it said.

It said there has also been a lack of progress in resolving technical difficulties related to the installation of smart meters in multiple occupancy and tall buildings and delays to the start of the Data and Communications Company's (DCC's) "communications infrastructure programme" too.

The Energy and Climate Change Committee called on the government to look into requiring smart meter distribution network operators (DNOs) to take "a more active" role in rolling out smart meters across the UK.

"The government must give serious consideration to whether or not it is possible to reduce costs to consumers by streamlining the roll-out of smart-meters, perhaps through more active participation of DNOs," the Committee said. "The government must also take a more active role in driving forward the industry-led rollout, seeking and facilitating industry-wide solutions to the technical challenges that remain."

The Committee also said that the government should continue to insist that suppliers installing new smart meters also install in-home displays to ensure consumers can receive data on their energy consumption despite admitting that "technology has now moved on".

The government and suppliers should, however, "identify an affordable smart app which can be used with all smart meters" that could be offered to consumers instead of in-home displays.

Tim Yeo, chair of the Energy and Climate Change Committee, said: "The energy industry told us that it needs the government to enable industry-wide solutions, rather than the less efficient alternative of letting each energy supplier develop its own solution."

"[The government] can continue with its current approach and risk embarrassment through public disengagement on a flagship energy policy, or it can grip the reins, and steer the energy industry along a more successful path which brings huge benefits for the country," Yeo said.

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