Energy industry ‘pulling out all the stops’ as RTS meter phase-out begins

The energy industry is “pulling out all the stops” to replace old radio teleswitch service (RTS) meters as they begin to be phased out today, the head of the trade body says.

The full deactivation of the service was originally scheduled to take place on Monday but was delayed following warnings that it was likely to cause considerable disruption to hundreds of thousands of households around the UK, with Scotland particularly affected.

RTS meters were introduced in the 1980s and rely on longwave radio signals from the BBC’s transmitter to switch meters between peak and off-peak tariff rates.

However, the equipment which broadcasts the signal is nearly obsolete.

Dhara Vyas, chief executive of Energy UK, discussed the changeover as she appeared on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland radio programme.

She said that as of late May, there were about 100,000 properties in Scotland still using the RTS.

Pressed on whether there had been a failure from energy companies to switch properties over to a more modern service, she said: “I think it’s a system that’s coming to the end of its time, it’s a really old technology.

“It’s been long coming, suppliers have been contacting customers over the last few years, and that’s been ramping up recently.”

The planned phase-out will involve small groups of customers being contacted as their RTS meters are deactivated.

Ms Vyas said 1,000 customers are currently being switched off every day, saying there are “programmes and plans in place to make sure we won’t be leaving remote areas behind”.

She was also asked what will happen to the clockwork meters which are affected by the switch-off.

Ms Vyas said: “If anything does go wrong, contact your supplier immediately.

“I would say the industry has been pulling out all the stops to try and accelerate meter replacements, contacting customers multiple times.”

At the end of May, she said there were about 300,000 households with RTS meters, but June could be a “bumper month” for replacements.

Advice Direct Scotland, which runs the national energyadvice.scot service, warned many consumers are still facing confusion and uncertainty.

Chief executive Andrew Bartlett said: “Given that there are still around 100,000 RTS meters in Scotland, a mass switch-off of the signal today would have been nothing short of a disaster.

“While it is welcome that ministers stepped in and ensured a phased approach instead, customers are still being left in the dark about who will be affected first.

“The whole process has been sorely lacking in transparency, and there is still a lot of unnecessary confusion and uncertainty about how this gradual switch-off is going to work.”

He also called for an industry-wide remediation fund to ensure no-one is left out of pocket.