Not so clever! Millions of new ‘smart meters’ are not working and experts are calling for the planned rollout of 36million MORE to be delayed
- Households were urged to sign up to digital meters as they’d automatically send readings to energy suppliers
- Many smart meters stop working when customers switch supplier
- 940,000 smart meters installed in homes but are now ‘dumb’; and 640,000 are not working because they are in new-build properties that are not yet occupied
- The Government wants 50million smart meters installed by 2020
More than 1.5million smart meters installed in homes are not working properly, according to figures yesterday.
Households were urged to sign up to the digital meters because they would automatically send readings to energy suppliers.
Customers were also told they would be able to see how much power they were using in pounds and pence on a small screen, which would help them cut consumption.
More than 1.5million smart meters installed in homes are not working properly, according to figures yesterday. Households were urged to sign up to the digital meters because they would automatically send readings to energy suppliers
Many smart meters stop working when customers switch supplier – so they have to go back to submitting their own readings
But many smart meters stop working when customers switch supplier – so they have to go back to submitting their own readings.
It means around 940,000 smart meters are installed in homes but are now, in effect, ‘dumb’ and doing nothing more than a traditional one, according to Government figures.
On top of that, 640,000 are not working because they have been put in new-build properties that have not yet been occupied, or the customer has switched to a small supplier and the Government does not have up-to-date data.
That means in total there are 1.58million meters that are not ‘operating in smart mode’, according to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
The Government wants 50million smart meters installed by 2020.
Households can refuse to have one put in, but suppliers must at least offer one or face huge fines.
But with just over two years to go until the deadline 13.6million have been put in.
Experts want the deadline pushed back so the problems can be resolved.
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