A third of RTS meters yet to be replaced are in Scotland

Scottish Liberal Democrat Northern Isles MSPs Beatrice Wishart and Liam McArthur have said that energy companies are “still stuck in slow lane,” as they revealed that there are tens of thousands of RTS meters still to be replaced in Scotland, which has a third of all remaining RTS meters in the UK.

Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS) meters receive radio signals to switch between different electricity rates or turn certain appliances on or off at specific times.

The radio signal created by this technology, however, is outdated, so these meters are now being phased out.

On 30th June 2025, the UK Government was forced to row back on switching off every RTS meter because energy companies had failed to replace meters at the pace required.

If meters are switched off before they are replaced, households could be left with no heating or hot water.

After scrapping the June deadline, the UK Government brought forward a phased switch-off instead.

The phased switch-off has been paused for the duration of the winter months in the north of Scotland, but is set to resume in March.

Through a freedom of information request to Ofgem, the party has uncovered that in Scotland:

• As at 31st October, there were still 47,591 yet to be replaced in Scotland- this is around a third of all RTS meters still to be replaced across the UK.
• 24,978 of these are located in northern Scotland, and 30% of these are meters which belong to vulnerable customers who are on the Priority Services Register.
• A further 28,563 are located in southern Scotland, and 31% of these are meters which belong to vulnerable customers who are on the Priority Services Register.
• Based on the current rate of meter replacement, an estimated 25,275 meters in Scotland will still need to be replaced come March 2026.  

Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP for Shetland Beatrice Wishart said:

“After all the mess that preceded the first planned switch-off, it beggars belief that energy companies are still stuck in the slow lane.

“Given that so many of these meters belong to vulnerable customers in more rural parts of the country, the impact of a switch-off before meters are replaced could be truly terrible.

“There is no excuse for energy companies- they have known for at least a decade that RTS meters were on their last legs, but they only started acting at the very last second.

“Energy companies urgently need to get a handle on this and ramp up the pace at which they are replacing meters. The impact of not doing so could be absolutely devastating.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP for Orkney Liam McArthur said:

“Looking at these figures, it feels like energy companies haven’t learned their lesson from the chaos of earlier in the year.

“When the government first announced this phased switch-off, my party warned that we could not be complaisant and that energy companies still needed to urgently accelerate the progress on meter replacements. This clearly hasn’t happened.

“Even amongst those whose meters have been replaced, some have reported that they cannot receive a signal to their smart meter and that they are not being correctly billed.

“The energy companies and the regulator need to get serious about tackling these problems, making sure every meter is replaced and that no one loses out once the phased switch-off is complete.”