With just weeks to go, 125,000 meters still need replaced 

Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP for Shetland Beatrice Wishart has called for urgent action to prepare for the Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS) switch-off as she highlighted figures showing that with just weeks to go there are just under 125,000 meters still to be replaced but just 5,000 per fortnight are being replaced.

The Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS), used by energy suppliers for some electricity meters, particularly in island and rural areas, to control heating and hot water systems, is set to end on 30 June 2025. At this point affected households face having their heating and hot water stuck either off or on.

According to Ofgem figures, provided by Energy Action Scotland to Ms Wishart, as of 18th April, across Scotland there were 124,864 meters still needing to be exchanged including 22,579 in Glasgow and 17,175 in Edinburgh. This is a decrease from 129,814 on 4th April and 134,829 on 21st March. This suggests that if the current trend continues the backlog of meters will not be completed for around a year.

Ms Wishart’s Shetland constituency is especially badly affected with 4,204 meters still to be replaced out of around 10,600 households.

The Liberal Democrats have called on the UK Government to require energy suppliers to compensate any household that requested a replacement meter before the shutdown but never received one.

Commenting on the figures, Ms Wishart said:

“The RTS switch-off has been depressing, frustrating and entirely avoidable. Frankly it is a national disgrace.

“We have weeks until the deadline but the energy companies are still so far behind. No one should be left without basic hot water or heating.

“In Shetland and across Scotland, it will take over a year for all remaining RTS meters to be exchanged.

“We have been promised technological fixes in advance of the switch off, yet we are, at the fifty ninth minute of the eleventh hour, still finding that there has been limited development in technology or greater connectivity to the smart meter signal.

“I urge local authorities and local resilience partnerships to ready themselves for any potential adverse outcomes of the RTS switch-off which may include thousands of homes without heating and hot water.

“Another short extension of the deadline will not solve the issue and if the switch-off is in autumn or winter the problems it will cause would be exacerbated by cold weather.

“Energy companies must increase their efforts to exchange all outstanding meters ahead of the deadline and be prepared to compensate anyone who has requested a new meter but loses out as a result of this bungled switch over.”