600, 000 Homes Without Smart Meters Risk Blackout

About 600, 000 homes and businesses which have not installed smart meters for electricity supply may soon be plunged into darkness.

This is because the Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS), on which they have been relying for electricity supply for heating and water, will soon be phased out.

Thought the phase-out deadline for the 40 year old system is June, the process of switching to smart meters may be intricate and catch many households and businesses napping.

The RTS is a radio signal meters service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and has been the recourse of many households and businesses off the gas network.

They have only but a six-month window to have smart meters, which is internet-connected.

The attraction to the RTS, is that it alerts consumers when to change their fees from high to low, and so offers a cheaper night tariff for consumers but with the latest deadline, those still on it would have little or no option than to switch.

Those on RTS system use tariffs such as Economy 7 or Economy 10 which offer cheaper power at night.

Thus, the BBC plans to end all long-wave broadcasts because they are energy-intensive and lack the quality of FM, but then, those leveraging from the service would prefer it did not.

Reports show that the RTS system should have been shut long ago, but had been left in consideration of those connected on RTS meters.

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With Energy UK, a trade body for energy suppliers, reaching an agreement with the BBC and regulator Ofgem, there appears to be no going back to planned switch-off of the service by June 30 2025.

An Ofgem spokesman said: “Smart meters are the best replacement for RTS meters – giving consumers more control of their energy usage and opening access to new money-saving tariffs – however, customers should speak to their supplier to understand the options that are available”, one report quotes an Ofgem spokesman as saying.

The Government wants to install smart meters in three quarters of households by the end of 2025, costing an estimated £13.5bn. However, an estimated four million broken devices are sitting in homes.