Martin Lewis: Too many energy smart meters are broken, they need fixing — letter to Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy

From: Martin Lewis
Founder and Chair, MoneySavingExpert.com

To: The Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP

Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
55 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2HP

Dear Ed, 

Congratulations on your appointment as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, and thank you for welcoming early engagement on issues affecting consumers.

I am writing to you about smart meters – and to warn of the brand damage that risks making the Government's targets framework perverse. A rethink is needed – specifically I'd suggest shifting firms' targets from smart meter installations to the overall number of 'working' smart meters, which would incentivise firms to do both installations and repairs.

This is because too many smart meters don't work. The industry can pump all the money it likes at marketing them, but when word of mouth is often saying 'don't bother', it's tough to shift the dial. I am regularly contacted by people asking: "What's the best tariff I can get without having to fit a smart meter?", as many who don't have one now are willing to pay more to avoid getting one.

The Government's estimate of how many domestic smart meters are not working is around 10%. Yet this only includes the narrow definition of smart meters in 'dumb' mode (ie, not sending automatic readings to the supplier).

Our latest MSE research (via statistically representative polling), which asked people if their smart meters work, shows 19% say theirs don't work. The reason this is so much higher is that it includes everything people feel has gone wrong, including in-home displays that won't communicate or connect, incorrect data on tariffs or usage, and prepay top-ups that don't register correctly. These aren't in the official stats. 

Too many resources are focused on installations, not repairs, leaving more existing meters not working properly. Repairs can be slow, if they happen at all, leaving consumers frustrated and at risk of mis-billing and further problems.

While there are current, somewhat flaccid rules that firms must take 'reasonable steps' to repair meters, that just leaves an argument over what 'reasonable' is, and it is nowhere near as robust as official targets. Plus, those targets would need to not allow a carve-out (as the 'reasonable steps' condition does) of the not insignificant number of times where the smart meter problems are due to the (wireless) network – which has left an accountability gap.

When it comes to installations, it's undoubtable many of the low-hanging fruit have now been picked. This means providers are having to use more forceful language and exclude customers from better deals to try and heavy-hand them into having a smart meter – all of which risks breeding resentment.

Smart meters, done right, offer an exciting future that should benefit energy security and enable innovative tariffs that can diminish peak usage, by incentivising people to shift usage to times when renewables are dominant – all of which should cut consumer costs. It's just a shame the overly-long history of the smart meter roll-out is one of sloth, poor decisions, poor technology and over-expense.

Shifting the target to 'working' smart meters could help give firms some wiggle room to get people back 'online', and in the long run, the hopefully improved word of mouth will lead more smart-meter-sceptics to decide they want to give it a go.

Kind regards,

Martin Lewis 

Founder and Chair, MoneySavingExpert.com