The way smart energy meters work in northern England and Scotland is causing issues for customers, BBC Panorama has been told.
The body that represents energy companies, Energy UK, has confirmed for the first time there is a regional divide – because of the way meters send usage data back to suppliers.
The technology used in the north can affect whether smart meters work properly – and could leave customers having to submit manual readings and receiving estimated bills.
The issues have also been confirmed by meter engineers who have spoken to the BBC.
In the Midlands, Wales and southern England, all meters use wireless cellular technology – similar to mobile phones – to send data to energy providers. If a signal is not strong enough, it can be boosted by an aerial.
But in northern England and Scotland, meters instead rely on radio frequencies and no such fix is available.
It is a legal requirement, the government says, for suppliers to make sure smart meters are working and it expects suppliers to “resolve all issues at a much faster pace”.
The mass roll-out of smart meters began 12 years ago, with the goal of helping people save money on their bills, while lowering carbon emissions as part of the government’s net zero plan.
By showing how much energy households are using, and how much it is costing, meters are intended to encourage people to use more energy at times of day when it is cheaper – because there is a surplus while most are in bed and factories are closed.
As more energy comes from renewable sources, smart meters will form a vital part of a “smart grid”, allowing consumers’ demand for energy to match the available supply, minute-by-minute.
The cost of installing smart meters across Great Britain is estimated to be £13.5bn, according to the government. There are 36 million such devices in England, Wales and Scotland – but recent government figures show 3.5 million of them are not working properly.
As a rule of thumb, smart meters in the northern region designed to connect to the radio signal have two small indicator lights on the communications hub, fitted to the top of the smart meter. The hubs fitted to smart meters in central and southern regions, receiving the cellular signal, usually have five of these indicator lights.
Northern Ireland’s energy market is separate with its own rules and regulator – and a consultation on a proposed smart meter roll-out is taking place.
Hartesh Battu, a doctor from Glasgow, has had six different smart meters, fitted by two energy suppliers, none of which have worked. “I just think it’s astonishingly bad in terms of the technology,” he told us. “I do feel like, ‘how could billions of pounds be spent on something so bad?’”
He told the BBC he had wanted a smart meter so he could save energy on his bills and take advantage of a night-time rate that would make it cheaper to charge his electric car.
His current energy supplier, Octopus Energy, told him the problem was down to signal issues in the area and may be because he lived “far up north” – reasoning that left him feeling deeply unimpressed. “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.”
When the mass roll-out started, the decision to use radio signals across northern England and Scotland – rather than the mobile technology further south – was because it was thought the signals would be able to travel far across the hills and mountains, reaching more rural communities more easily.
But Energy UK admits there are problems regarding how the radio signals transmit. “There are issues in the north,” chief executive Dhara Vyas told us.
She said there were “live conversations” within the industry about increasing the network range in the north of England and Scotland.
This technological divide has been experienced by smart meter engineers who have spoken anonymously to Panorama.
One engineer, “Ahmed” told us there were more problems in northern England and Scotland on average, adding that the technology further south was more up to date.
“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,” he said.
Another engineer, “Steve” working for a major energy supplier in Merseyside, who has experience of installing meters in homes on both sides of the regional divide, told us it was “far easier to complete a successful installation” in the south and Midlands where he could use the cellular network.
Smart meters are supposed to make paying our energy bills easier and cheaper. But is that the whole story?
Watch now on BBC iPlayer – or on BBC One on Monday 11 November at 20:00 (20:30 in Wales and Northern Ireland).
The original roll-out of smart meters is a “textbook example of a project failure”, Sir Dieter Helm, a former government advisor on energy policy, told Panorama.
He believes the Coalition government made several mistakes that led to the roll-out taking too long and costing too much money. The decision to divide the communications network in two was one such error, he says, which meant there “were bound to be problems and right from the word go”.
Energy suppliers do not have direct control over the communication network – in both the north and south. Instead it is run by an organisation known as the Data Communications Company (DCC) and is operated by outsourcing company, Capita.
Panorama contacted Dr Battu’s energy supplier, Octopus Energy, about the problems he was having with his meter. The company said the situation was “frustrating” because government regulations dictated it must use the radio-wave technology to provide a signal to Dr Battu’s meter – and that it was not permitted to access the local 3G signal instead.
However, in what they described as “a highly unusual move”, Octopus told us that it had in fact decided to break the rules and fix his meter by connecting it to the mobile network. It added that “regulation has not moved with technology”.
Meter engineer, “Alan”, agrees with Octopus that the rules are too rigid. When he encounters problems in the north with radio-wave technology, especially in built up areas, he says he wishes he could access the cellular network.
“It shouldn’t be an either-or. We should be able to use both.”
Capita told the BBC it advised energy suppliers against using alternative technological solutions, because that would mean there was no contractual or consumer protection for the meter user to ensure service was maintained or problems addressed.
It said the network it runs provides 99.3% coverage across Great Britain, adding that it was “fully committed to resolving connection issues”.
In a statement it added: “The DCC is actively working with government to provide a future-proof 4G technology solution for the whole of Britain.”
Most energy users pay a little bit extra on their bills towards the cost of installing and fixing smart meters. That is supposed to be offset by the savings they could make and the environmental benefits.
And the latest figures show that nine in 10 smart meters are working fine. But a recent survey by Citizens’ Advice suggests one in five households have had to regularly send manual meter readings because their smart meters haven’t worked properly.
Money Saving Expert founder Martin Lewis told the BBC he was supportive of the concept of smart meters, but the reality had not matched up.
“I find it incredibly frustrating how bad the roll-out has been, it has taken far too long, it has cost billions. All our bills are higher because of it, and we haven’t yet reaped the benefit because it hasn’t been done right. Somebody needs to grab the bull by the horns and make the smart meter system finally work.”
The government told Panorama that “while over 90% of smart meters are operating normally’’ the number not working properly was “still too high” and, as a result, “many households are missing out on cheaper, flexible tariffs”.
It also said that a recent customer experience survey by Ofgem “found no statistically significant differences” in the proportion of customers reporting that their meter was not sending readings to their suppliers for areas in, or predominantly in, the north.
Most experts agree smart meters can help to deliver lower bills and lower carbon emissions. But if the tech problems continue, that could put people off having them and undermine the government’s goal of getting them into every home.