UK energy meter switch-off delayed amid fears over heating and higher bills | Energy bills

As the temperature climbs to 30C, the danger of closing a system that can leave its heating fully stuck should appear to be a disaster that can be prevented.

Ministers on Thursday, Radio teleswitch service (RTS) will not be “not” on June 30, which controls an old type of electricity meter.

Instead, the technology will be lifted more slowly. The first stage will contain a maximum of 600 households for a period of three weeks, and during this period, the suppliers’ response times to the vulnerable consumers will be closely monitored.

However, the campaign groups say that they expect the details of the new timeline and that they want guarantees that they will not pay any more when customers are forced to replace meters.

Introduced in the 1980s, RTS is designed for people using electricity for heating and hot waters. It uses the long wave radio frequency to replace the meters between tariffs and can also open and close the heating and hot water systems.

The suppliers were given a deadline dated June 30 to remove customers from the old technology, but the problems in the transition reported last month by Guardian were afraid that 300,000 houses could end without a operating meter.

Readers continued to inform the problems of obtaining problems with appointment or changing. Some have been told that a smart meter would not work at home because of a bad connection, or that it is not even an appropriate technology that would be integrated with home installations.

“We had three visits from ovo engineers, all of which are very weak, and recommend that a smart meter cannot be installed because the signal is very weak,” he said. “This has been going on for about 15 months.”

Energy UK, the Energy Industry Trade Organ, said that there are technical solutions for each house. He added that if a customer is said to be not possible to replace before, they should keep their suppliers again.

These solutions contain a pre -programmed smart meter. It is the solution presented for this couple after contacting Guardian. When the signal power is healed, it can be replaced remotely.

Ovo said: ız We have solutions for extraordinary situations like this, and it is determined to support an appointment planning to replace the counter. ”

Other consumers are worried about what change may mean for the energy bill. When old -fashioned RTS systems are usually electric, they contain panel heaters or immersion heaters in water tanks that charge over an electric night.

Bryan Jones, who lives in Redruth at Cornwall, said, not my advice to everyone who thinks of a smart meter to everyone with storage heaters: not, ”he said.

“One of the worst financial decisions I’ve ever made,” he said, after replacing the measurement with EDF 18 months ago (the network would be initially closed in March 2024).

“Initially, my smart meter was wrong to charge all units at daily rates,” he said. “This was later corrected, but the set smart meter then failed in different ways.”

“A recent examination of my electricity between January and April 2025 revealed that one -third of my night units were accused of daily units as the intelligent meter has invalidated my heater settings.”

Two appointments to change the measuring device were kidnapped by the supplier.

Jones is on a priority list for changing the measuring device. After contacting the Guardian EDF, he apologized for the abducted appointments and compensation. Now he’s investigating billing errors.

Ofgem, energy regulator for Great Britain, in question “No customer should be financially disadvantageous”. “RTS should offer the same or equivalent tariffs after upgrading the RTS measuring devices,” he added.

The meters are replaced by 1,800 per day, but ofgem still wants the work to go to “faster”.

The Government said that the Minister of Energy and Energy UK will gather every two weeks to review the progress of the stage exit, and that approximately one -third of the remaining meters will be gathered with particular attention to Scotland.

Charlotte Friel, Director of Pricing and Systems of Retail Pricing and Systems, said, “It should secure customers”, but “it is very important to change these meters urgently”. “It is very important to interact with your supplier when you make an appointment,” he added.

Simon Francis, the coordinator of the latest fuel poverty coalition, said that the RTS closure process was sentenced to failure after that It became clear The deadline could not be reached only.

“Now we need to publish a plan that determines how the regions will be affected and when it will be affected,” he said.

“Most importantly, we need solid and binding guarantees that no customer will be left without heating or hot water and that no household will encounter higher bills as a result of changes.”