Smart meter rollout 'needs private sector help'
Government "not good" at delivering infrastructure projects, according to chair of Smart Energy GB.
The chair of Smart Energy GB, the company responsible for promoting the rollout of smart meters across the UK, has called for private sector input to help deliver the Government's targets on time, saying that "not good" at big infrastructure projects.
The Government has said that this will not be necessary, despite the project having already been delayed by over a year.
Government ‘not good’ at these projects
Baroness Margaret McDonagh, who chairs Smart Energy GB, told the BBC: “As we know from experience, governments are not good at big infrastructure projects because it's not their business.”
“To do these things well, you need to be doing them all the time. When a body can focus on these things with a date in mind - like the Olympic delivery - they can achieve it on time and on budget.”
She has called for a chief executive from the private sector to be appointed to run the project on the Government’s behalf.
A Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) spokesperson responded: “Last year, an independent review on the smart meters programme backed the current delivery model, which is going to deliver the benefits of smart meters at the lowest possible cost to billpayers.”
More than 4.5 million smart meters need to be installed per annum over the next four and a half years to make sure that every household is equipped by the end of 2020.
That would be a daunting target for any organisation to realise – and on top of residential properties, the Government aims to have installed smart meters for all small businesses too.
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Smart meters
Smart meters monitor energy usage and display consumption and cost data to users. They also transmit accurate meter readings to energy companies on a regular basis so that bills don’t need to be estimated. Customers should therefore not get overcharged for any given period.
The Government wants to see smart meters installed in 26 million homes by 2020, but only 1.6 million have been installed so far.
Further to the delay in deployment, the smart meter project has come in for criticism from the Public Accounts Committee, which said that the scheme will only save households 2% on their energy bill a year, an average of around £26 annually. The estimated cost of the project is close to £11 billion.
While customers will not be obliged to directly pay for the meters - and indeed agreeing to their installation is not mandatory - future bills could rise as energy companies attempt to recuperate their costs.
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