If your smart meter is failing to work properly you might not be alone – half the country’s devices are operating on less-efficient technology, it has emerged.
Energy companies have been accused of operating an ‘astonishingly bad’, two-tier system under which only customers in the Midlands, Wales and Southern England have the most effective equipment.
An investigation by BBC Panorama found customers in northern England and Scotland are fitted with smart meters which send data back to suppliers using radio waves instead of via mobile phone networks.
The decision to use the older technology was taken because it was thought the signals would be able to travel far across the hills and mountains, reaching more rural communities more easily.
In central and southern areas, meanwhile, all meters use cellular technology, similar to mobile phones – despite there also being remote rural communities in parts of Wales and the West Country.
The technological divide means customers with radio devices sometimes have difficulty connecting with their supplier, and have to send manual readings or receive estimated bills instead.
A Household smart meter on a kitchen work top. Devices across the UK are are operating on less-efficient technology
Dhara Vyas, chief executive of Energy UK, an umbrella body for energy companies, admitted to problems regarding how the radio signals transmit.
She said: ‘There are issues in the north.’
Ms Dhara said there were “live conversations” within the industry about modifications to meters in northern England and Scotland.
One customer, doctor Hartesh Battu, said he has been fitted with six different smart meters, fitted by two energy suppliers – but none have worked.
Dr Battu, from Glasgow, said: ‘I just think it’s astonishingly bad in terms of the technology. I do feel like, ‘how could billions of pounds be spent on something so bad?’’
He said he had wanted a smart meter in order to take advantage of a night-time rate making it cheaper to charge his electric car.
Dr Battu said Octopus Energy, his current supplier, told him the problem was down to signal issues in the area and may be because he lived ‘far up north’.
He said: ‘I just thought that was a bit bonkers because I live in Glasgow, I’m hardly up in Shetland, I’m not rural at all.’
The BBC spoke to smart meter engineers who explained the extent of the problems.
One engineer, named only as ‘Ahmed’, said problems with smart meters were more common in northern England and Scotland on average, adding the technology further south was more up to date.
He said: ‘You can end up going to someone’s house at the bottom of a mountain in the north and the radio frequency can’t get through. But there could be a good 3G signal nearby and that could get through – the customer doesn’t know that.’
Pictured: wind turbines and powerlines. Customers in some areas of the UK may be have smart meters which ‘don’t work’
A second engineer, ‘Steve’, based on Merseyside and who has installed both types of meters, told Panorama it was ‘far easier to complete a successful installation’ in the south and Midlands where he could use the cellular network.
Customers can generally spot which connection their meter has by looking at how many indicator lights are fitted to the device.
Smart meters connected to radio waves have two lights, while those on cellular systems usually have five lights.
In areas of weak signal, cellular systems have a key advantage because their reception can be boosted using an aerial – but no such fix is possible for radio-connected devices.
Since the smart meter rollout began 12 years ago, 36 million smart meters have been installed at a cost of £13.5bn but, according to government figures, 3.5m are not working properly – almost one in 10.
The Government said energy suppliers have a legal requirement to ensure smart meters are working and companies are expected to ‘resolve all issues at a much faster pace’.
