Last legs: These Droitwich transmission towers are all that’s keeping the RTS service going
Two decades-old pieces of glass and metal are all that stands between 900,000 UK energy meters working properly or being severely disrupted, and even turned off.
If that sounds unbelievable, welcome to the murky world of Radio Teleswitch (RTS) meters, where such apparent oversights are just another day in the office for energy firms.
RTS meters are used to run the sort of ‘time-of-use’ energy deals that allow peak and off-peak energy use, with the most well-known being Economy 7 and Economy 10 tariffs.
These allow households to save money for energy they use at certain times of day, typically overnight.
There are about 900,000 RTS meters in the country running time-of-use tariffs, which also work with smart meters and older mechanical meters that have an internal clock.
But these RTS meters face a significant problem, leaving This is Money’s postbags bulging with concerned readers recently.
In the last few weeks and months, many energy firms have been contacting their Economy 7 and 10 customers to tell them that they may need to get a smart meter fitted or else their RTS meters may not work properly.
Some customers have even been told that they will lose access to heating and hot water unless they get a smart meter fitted.
That is because these RTS meters rely on BBC Radio 4 longwave radio to work, and the BBC wants to switch that service off.
That would mean energy firms can no longer easily tell what time the customer is using energy at, which obviously presents a problem with running peak and off-peak energy deals.
Once the RTS service is turned off, customers have a choice. They can keep their current meter and lose tariffs like Economy 7 and 10, or they can upgrade to a smart meter, which can keep running such deals.
Those homes with mechanical meters will be unaffected.
Weight of ages: The Droitwich transmitting station was opened in the 1930s
The reason for our readers’ concern was that the 2024 deadline to turn this RTS service off was 31 March, and their energy firms only told them this during 2024.
Many were worried that they could not get a smart meter in time – or that they didn’t want one, leaving the future of their off-peak deals in doubt.
While many energy firm communications did mention the possibility of an extension, many customers were still left understandably rattled.
Fortunately, last-ditch talks between energy firms and the BBC have now averted the problem by allowing an extension to the RTS service, at least until next March – although not before giving a lot of customers sleepless nights.
Why so many customers were sent such worrying emails and letters, at such short notice, beggars belief
Why so many customers were sent such worrying emails and letters, at such short notice, beggars belief.
But all the extension has done is kick the can down the road, because the BBC is very keen to stop running RTS.
And with good reason, it has to be said.
In England and Wales, RTS meters currently run off one main transmitter, based in Droitwich.
In turn, that ancient transmitter relies on valve technology to work – the same sort of vacuum tubes that once powered old TVs and radios.
The issue is that the system requires two valves to work. They are both pushing 20 years old, there are no spares anywhere in the world, and if either valve breaks then the RTS system stops working.
Anyone who has experience with valves knows that break they very often do, and with a bang – indeed, rockstars used to rely on this to spectacular effect by throwing TVs out of hotel windows.
Now, the metre-tall valves in the Droitwich Transmitting Station are clearly tougher than your average TV or radio valve – though I reckon still no match for the likes of Keith Moon in his heyday.
But clearly the RTS system is on the way out, and the BBC has been gunning to replace it for 10 years.
The reason the Beeb hasn’t already done this is a distinctly more modern one – smart meters, or more accurately the lack of them.
The only viable replacement to an RTS meter is a smart meter, if customers want to carry on using time-of-use tariffs.
Older mechanical meters will also run these tariffs – but these are no longer made, so cannot be installed to replace RTS devices.
Lights out? Economy 7 and 10 customers now have until 2025 until their meters stop working
That just leaves smart meters, but energy firms have not been able to fit them fast enough.
Replacing all these old RTS meters with smart ones by 31 March this year would have required energy firms to fit around 21,500 smart meters a day and to only focus on RTS customers.
But these firms are only managing just over 9,000 smart meter installations a day for all customers, according to the latest Government figures.
Some energy firms have already replaced 75 per cent of their customers’ RTS meters, while others have only managed 10 per cent, according to Ofgem statistics.
Because of the slow smart meter roll-out, energy firms have agreed several extension deals to the RTS with the BBC.
It may be that the March 2025 deadline is extended too, but clearly the days are numbered for RTS meters. Customers with these meters either need to get a smart meter or lose their time-of-use tariffs.
What energy firms need to do – and should have done far sooner – is communicate the options for RTS customers far sooner and far more clearly.
Not doing so has caused considerable and understandable worry, so energy firms need to sort their act out long before the 2025 deadline rolls around.
Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.
