Speeches by Reader.

“I am going to talk about vulnerable customers, in particular RTS, but before I go into that I have a question for Ned. I am just working this through in my head, given what I have heard from you today about the way the fines worked. It is commercially beneficial for energy companies not to do the difficult ones now, be…”

“I recognise that this is not your policy area, Simon, but you are welcome to come in if you want. If not, I will move to Penny. Same question: how do we ensure communities are not left behind in areas where smart meters cannot yet be rolled out or upgraded to the latest generation?”

“How can we ensure that communities are not left behind in areas where smart meters are not yet rolled out or upgraded to the latest generation?”

“But until you fix it—sorry to labour this—my bills are higher, and I am at the mercy of whether the energy company says, “I’ll pick up the difference, because there is a problem with the network.” The energy supplier will say, “Well, it’s not my problem, so I’m not going to pick up the bill,” so the consumer will be le…”

“So what we’ve heard from Citizens Advice is true, then? There is an accountability gap, isn’t there?”

“The energy supplier would have to be in a good mood and pick up the cost. They would say that they are not liable for the wide area network either, so they would say that they will not pay the additional costs, wouldn’t they?”

“But with those higher bills, who pays that additional cost?”

“It is a general theoretical; I am not specifically saying me. Is there no recourse for the consumer if the wide area network failure means that they are paying higher bills?”

“Wera talked about charging a car; my smart meter would tell me when to charge it to get the cheap stuff, but I cannot do that if my smart meter is not working, so my bills are going to go up. Should I pay for that, as a consumer?”

“Just help me work this through in my head: I have a smart meter, but there is a wide area network problem, so it is not working, so my bills are inaccurate. But the issue is not me; it is the wide area network. If my bills are wrong, and I get back billed, get my bills increased, or go on to a different tariff, etc., s…”

“We have heard from Citizens Advice that there is an accountability gap—that it is unclear for people whether they go to DCC or their energy suppliers. Do you think that should be made clearer for people?”

“Yes. We are looking at technical performance and coverage, and we have heard through the evidence we have received that consumers have little recourse when their smart meter stops working due to faults on the wide area network. Is that true, and what is the process for resolving issues under such circumstances?”

“When you work with them, what do you do?”

“What are you doing for that group?”

“I will come to RTS in a moment. I want to talk more generally about people who are less digitally literate or have been mis-sold, I read a case study on the Citizens Advice website by Franc Kolar, who was told by the energy company the smart meter would work, and installed it in his basement. He assumed it was all fine…”

“It is a general theoretical; I am not specifically saying me. Is there no recourse for the consumer if the wide area network failure means that they are paying higher bills?”

“But with those higher bills, who pays that additional cost?”

“The energy supplier would have to be in a good mood and pick up the cost. They would say that they are not liable for the wide area network either, so they would say that they will not pay the additional costs, wouldn’t they?”

“So what we’ve heard from Citizens Advice is true, then? There is an accountability gap, isn’t there?”

“But until you fix it—sorry to labour this—my bills are higher, and I am at the mercy of whether the energy company says, “I’ll pick up the difference, because there is a problem with the network.” The energy supplier will say, “Well, it’s not my problem, so I’m not going to pick up the bill,” so the consumer will be le…”