Around 175,000 Scots homes could be left without heating and hot water if they don’t swap out old meters in the coming months. The warning comes from regulator Ofgem who are set to switch off the old Radio Teleswitching Service (RTS) longwave system for good next June.
However, hundreds of thousands of Scots still host RTS meters in their homes to keep track of their energy use. Of around 800,000 households still fitted with the meters across Britain, more than a quarter – some 175,000 homes – are in Scotland.
Customers who have an RTS meter – or those who are not sure if they have one – are being told to urgently contact their energy supplier for advice and make an appointment for an engineer to visit their home.
The RTS switch-off is set for June 30 next year. The RTS system, which uses long wave radio signals to tell some electricity meters to switch between on and off-peak, is no longer viable, according to Ofgem.
But the regulator has said it is behind schedule and needs to accelerate its mass replacement plan. And it warned without an appropriate meter replacement some affected homes, schools and businesses could be left without heating and hot water, or unable to turn off their heating, with their heating either permanently on or off.
Charlotte Friel, Ofgem’s director of consumer protection, said: “At the current monthly rate of replacement, it would be 2028 before all RTS meters across the UK are upgraded so it’s clear that swift, drastic action is needed – and I am pleased that suppliers and other stakeholders are responding to our call for bold and decisive action.
“By joining forces to accelerate their RTS upgrade programmes in hotspot areas and helping each other find solutions for the complex technical barriers posed in certain remote regions, I believe this collective effort can deliver the significant change of pace required. I am heartened to see so many suppliers and organisations working together towards the shared, and most important, goal – to keep consumers safe.”
As of June this year, some 860,000 homes and small businesses were reliant on RTS signals for their energy tariffs across the UK, including 240,000 in Scotland – 28 per cent of the total. For customers who may not know if they have an RTS meter, experts say typical signs are meters that switch between on and off-peak rates, homes which use electric storage heaters and homes that are not hooked up to the gas grid, usually in rural and remote areas.
Sam Ghibaldan, chief executive of national body Consumer Scotland, said: “Urgent action is required to ensure consumers do not suffer harm as a result of the switch-off, so we welcome the agreement between Ofgem, industry and consumer groups to find a joint solution. We encourage affected households to contact their supplier to arrange a meter replacement as soon as possible. Suppliers also have a responsibility to proactively seek out RTS consumers, who may not realise they are affected.
“As part of Ofgem’s working group on this issue Consumer Scotland will continue to monitor progress and help coordinate efforts to ensure consumers in Scotland are protected.” But Frazer Scott, from campaign group Energy Action Scotland, said it was “unacceptable” that Ofgem had waited until “the eleventh hour” to speed up the process.
He said: “With the scale of these changes over such a short period of time, we’re really concerned that it’s simply not going to happen. And the consequences are considerable for all those households that might be affected when it’s switched off.”
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