Robert Leslie the SNP General Election candidate for Orkney and Shetland has urged energy regulator Ofgem to ensure households in the islands aren’t left in the cold when an electricity meter system is due to be switched off next year.

“The ending of this signal could literally leave these households in the cold, without heating and hot water, if meters are not replaced by the deadline.”

Mr Leslie says electricity customers with Radio Teleswitch meters could be left with no heating or hot water if Ofgem doesn’t force energy companies to take ownership of the need to replace the meters, which are set to become redundant in July 2025.

He highlighted the danger in a letter to Ofgem chief executive Jonathan Brearley, urging him to insist that energy suppliers take a pro-active and strategic approach in the urgent need to replace an estimated 900,000 Radio Teleswitch meters across the UK. The work needs to be done before the radio signal controlling the meters is due to be switched off on 30 June 2025.

Mr Leslie was reacting to a statement released on Friday by trade body Energy UK, which urged RTS customers to ‘act now – either by responding to contact from their supplier or getting in contact themselves’ to ensure ‘a smooth upgrade to a smart meter and mean that customers continue to enjoy the benefits they currently get from RTS’.

Energy UK says if the RTS equipment isn’t replaced by the switch-off date, not only could customers be limited to a more expensive single-rate tariff, they could also no longer rely on their heating and hot water switching on and off as expected – with the risk of them even staying permanently on or off.

Robert Leslie said:

 “The UK energy system is broken and electricity customers in Orkney and Shetland are already waiting months – sometimes years – for broken electricity meters to be replaced. The issue of the ending of the signal that controls these meters has been known for years, yet energy suppliers have failed to act at a significant level to replace them. Pushing the responsibility onto households is nothing short of a dereliction of duty by those running the UK energy system.

“Across Orkney and Shetland, RTS meters are mainly supplying electricity to charge storage heaters and hot water immersions in homes where folk pay significantly higher prices than households with access to mains gas. As a result, some of these households are among the most vulnerable to energy price changes, and are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. Fuel poverty rates in the islands have rocketed alongside these unsustainable electricity price hikes.

“To add to this the responsibility to ensure that their electricity meter is replaced before July 2025 is deplorable.

“The ending of this signal could literally leave these households in the cold, without heating and hot water, if meters are not replaced by the deadline.

“That is why I am urging Ofgem to ensure that the energy companies take a more pro-active and strategic approach. At the very least we need to ensure that there are enough meter engineers in the area to carry out the replacements in time. At the moment there appears to be a bidding war between energy companies for a very few engineers willing to travel to Orkney and Shetland, leaving us with the current disastrously poor level of service.

“The whole issue illustrates why Scotland needs powers over energy policy. An independent Scotland in charge of its own energy system would make Scotland’s energy work for Scotland’s people – not shareholders.”

You can download a copy of Robert Leslie’s letter to Ofgem here: