Carmichael ‘genuinely furious’ over meter replacement debacle

Orkney and Shetland’s MP has railed against “reckless failures” by energy companies and Ofgem as a planned meter switch-off is postponed yet again.

Alistair Carmichael was left “genuinely furious” after a roundtable meeting about the RTS shutdown, which will cease the radio signal controlling some electricity meters.

The switch-off had been scheduled for June 30, after being postponed last year to allow time for households to replace their meters. Amid rampant criticism of the smart meter roll out, the shutdown has now been pushed back again.

But ar the roundtable meeting with Ofgem and Energy UK (the energy company representative body), it was confirmed that the RTS service is still expected to fail within months rather than years.

At a current rate of 1,000 meter replacements a day, Mr Carmichael has claimed that — unless the replacement rates are doubled — meters will be still be needing replaced next summer.

Despite this, MPs were told that energy companies and the regulator are working towards the end of 2025 as the expected end date for RTS. They were told they would each be contacted with the specific switch-off date for their constituency.

“It is not often that I am genuinely furious coming out of a meeting,” said Mr Carmichael following the roundtable.

“But the arrogance and complacency of the energy companies over their RTS failures has been something to behold.

“I went into this meeting hoping for a proper explanation of the plans for the phased shutdown of RTS, and some much-needed and much-deserved contrition from Ofgem and the energy companies responsible for this mess.

“Instead there was no acknowledgement of the reckless failures that brought us here. We were treated to blithe assurances that all is well and that the phased switch-off was planned all along – even if that did not merit telling the public until now.

“We were told that RTS is still on the point of failure and could fall down at any time – but that the new expectation is to finish the shutdown sometime in the winter. It would take a fool or a madman to see this as a responsible solution – but between Ofgem and Energy UK that is what we have.

“Now is the time for the government to stop playing nice with the regulator and the energy companies. Ministers need to make them feel the heat – so that vulnerable households can still get some heat this winter.”