How your smart meter network affects your bills
Customers in northern England and Scotland could be missing out on the cost-saving benefits of energy smart meters.
A BBC investigation has found that in the north of England and Scotland, smart meters rely on long-range radio frequencies to send gas and electricity readings back to suppliers, while in the south of England, they use wireless cellular technology, like mobile phones.
If a cellular signal is weak, it can be boosted by an aerial – but a radio signal cannot.
This difference means customers in patchy areas of the north can end up having to pay estimated bills, instead of bills which reflect their actual energy usage.
What are smart meters?
Smart meters are electronic devices that measure how much gas and electricity a household is using, sending automatic readings to energy suppliers.
These readings allow suppliers to bill customers for their usage accurately.
Customers without a smart meter have to provide regular manual readings or pay estimated energy bills, which may not reflect their actual usage.
Smart meters also come with a display screen which tells customers how much energy they are using and how much it costs in near real-time.
Energy is offered at cheaper prices during off-peak periods, when there is a surplus. This is normally at night, as factories are closed and people are largely asleep.
This reduces demand on the network at peak hours – typically 8am to 10pm.
The mass rollout of smart meters across Great Britain began in 2011, when the Government mandated that energy suppliers provide the technology.
Every home was expected to have a smart meter installed by 2020 – but only 57 per cent had one by the end of March 2023. The deadline has since been pushed back to 2025.
It has cost an estimated £13.5bn to install 36 million devices across England, Wales and Scotland, according to the Government. Suppliers cover the cost of installation by spreading it out over energy bills.
Northern Ireland’s energy market is separate with its own rules and regulator.
What is the North-South divide?
The communication network underpinning smart meter technology functions differently in northern England and Scotland compared with the rest of Britain.
In the Midlands, Wales and southern England, smart meters use wireless cellular technology to send data to energy providers. If a signal is not strong enough, it can be boosted by an aerial.
In the North, the devices rely on long-range radio frequencies. These cannot be boosted as easily.
At the time of the mass rollout, it was thought that radio signals would be able to travel further across hills and mountains, reaching rural communities in the north more effectively.
But the radio-wave network is less reliable that the cellular network, the BBC has found.
One engineer said that there were more problems in northern England and Scotland on average, telling Panorama that the technology used down south was more up to date.
He said: “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.”
If signal issues prevent a smart meter from sending automatic readings, a customer can submit manual readings instead.
But if they fail to do this, they will be given an estimated bill – which may not reflect actual energy usage and cost significantly more.
A recent survey by Citizens’ Advice suggested that one in five households have had to regularly send manual readings due to issues with their smart meters.
The chief executive Energy UK admitted to the BBC that there are “issues in the north” with how radio signals are transmitted.
She said there were “live conversations” in the sector about increasing the network range in the north.
The communication network across Britain is run by the Data Communications Company, which is a subsidiary of Capita, a global outsourcing company.
Capita said its network provides 99.3 per cent coverage across Great Britain, telling the BBC it was “fully committed to resolving connection issues”.
