Hundreds of thousands of households will be forced onto smart meters within six months, This is Money can reveal.
Households that have resisted smart meters may be left with little choice when the Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS), which uses traditional meters, ends in June.
The energy regulator Ofgem says it expects suppliers to transfer 100,000 customers using RTS every month until June, which they say is feasible under current plans.
RTS meters piggyback off the long-wave channel for BBC Radio 4 in order to communicate with energy firms, and many date back to the 1980s.
The BBC has long wanted to shut RTS down but has kept it running in order to run RTS meters, and it is paid for by energy firms.
Now the national broadcaster will finally switch the service off in June but there are 600,000 households still using RTS meters.
Switch over: Old RTS meters like this one may not work properly in a few months
Suppliers were slow to switching customers over meaning Ofgem had to step in to push suppliers along last year.
This meant suppliers committed to contacting all RTS customers to offer a replacement by the end of 2024.
Now, households are receiving letters from their suppliers to say they will need to move over to a smart meter before the switch or face losing their heating and hot water supply.
Will households have to use smart meters?
The switchover will see more households pushed onto smart meters as they become the default meters in Britain, according to Ofgem.
As a result, it may not be possible for all households to continue using a traditional meter and crucially, there is no obligation for suppliers to do so.
Suppliers have to reach a certain amount of smart meter installations so it is very unlikely that they will encourage households to use older meters.
There are approximately 600,000 RTS meters remaining in Britain, after 300,000 were switched over during the course of 2024.
Energy firms use RTS to switch a meter between peak and off-peak rates so customers can have energy deals that charge them less at certain times.
There are concerns that the RTS switch-off will mean an end to these tariffs.
One reader told This Is Money that they had been ‘bombarded’ with emails about installing a new smart meter before June.
She was told the meter ‘may malfunction and I won’t be able to access the cheapest night rates after that deadline’ without a smart meter.
Suppliers have been told that suppliers must take reasonable steps to ensure RTS customers stay on the same or a like-for-like tariff, This Is Money understands, but this might not be possible in some cases.
Ofgem and suppliers say that switching to a smart meter should give customers access to a wider choice of money-saving ‘smart meter only’ tariffs.
As a result, there seems to be little choice for households looking for alternatives to smart meters, although they can switch it to ‘dumb mode’ which means it will not send readings to the supplier.
An Ofgem spokesman said: ‘We expect suppliers to consider a range of innovative solutions to ensure their RTS customers get on to a metering and tariff arrangement appropriate for them.
‘Smart meters are the best replacement for RTS meters – giving consumers more control of their energy usage and opening access to new money-saving tariffs – however, customers should speak to their supplier to understand the options that are available.’
That said, there could be households left with an RTS meter beyond June 2025 according to the regulator. It says it has contingency plans and support in place and has asked suppliers to demonstrate how it will protect consumers that remain on RTS.
If you have any issues or questions about the RTS deadline, you should contact your supplier.
Have you received the letter? Get in touch: editor@thisismoney.co.uk
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