Plan for delivery of smart electricity meters delayed

A plan to roll out smart electricity meters to every home in a move to help customers reduce their bills faces delays after the ESB put the procurement process on hold temporarily for "technical reasons".

Smart meters will replace the traditional gas and electricity meters and will remove the need for a home visit to have the meter read. They provide customers with a view of actual energy usage and can help them move their consumption to less expensive, off-peak tariffs.

They are also designed to help the environment by reducing overall energy production.

ESB Networks published a tender notice in the Official Journal of the European Union at the end of May seeking initial interest from suppliers for the smart meters.

It had planned to initiate a tenderer pre-qualification questionnaire process, from which it would determine a bid list and then to proceed at a later stage with the tender process for meters.

However earlier this month the ESB’s procurement division wrote to smart meter suppliers who had responded with an initial expression of interest to say it “must postpone this process at this time”.

It said it was now the intention to recommence the process in 2017, “likely to be some time in April-May”.

The ESB said the overall smart metering programme would continue. It intended to proceed with the tender process for a communications and data service, which is necessary for the operation of the meters.

The Commission for Energy Regulation (CER), which is the overall programme manager for the National Smart Metering Programme, confirmed that a key cost-benefit analysis would not now takeplace until early next year.

Intelligent metering

The EU proposes that where roll-out of smart meters is assessed positively, at least 80 per cent of consumers will be equipped with intelligent metering systems by 2020.

Minister for Natural Resources Denis Naughten told the Dáil recently the roll-out of smart meters would take a number of years and would commence in late 2018 "at the earliest".

He added that the replacement of existing meters with smart meters represented “a welcome modernisation of our metering infrastructure”.

ESB Networks said the change to the process was being made for “technical reasons” and would not impact on the overall smart metering programme schedule.

The current timeline was to install a smart meter in 80 per cent of homes by 2020 and was “the responsibility of the Commission for Energy Regulation as the programme manager”.

CER said it had discussed the implications of the delay which was “a key milestone” in the metering plan.

It had initiated a process with ESB Networks to review the programme plan and this process should be concluded by the end of August.

CER said it had briefed the Department of Communications, Climate Action, and Environment and the European Commission on the developments.

“After this review, the CER expects to have a clear strategy from ESB Networks on their overall programme milestones and we will be able to communicate revised NSMP timelines to stakeholders following that,” it added.

CER said it had always intended to rerun the cost-benefit analysis for the national plan in parallel with the procurement process “to ensure the efficiency and benefit of the programme to the consumer”.

That analysis would now take place in the early part of 2017.