Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant the Answer of 14 November 2016 to Question 52126, what the timetable is for the completion of work to make SMETS1 meters interoperable.

The Data and Communications Company (DCC) is consulting on options for moving SMETS1 meters into the new national smart metering data and communications infrastructure to make them interoperable between energy suppliers when customers switch supplier (https://www.smartdcc.co.uk/media/409998/iepfr_consultation_-_published.pdf). Following consultation, the DCC will submit a report on enrolment options to the Government in Spring 2017. The timetable for completion of the DCC’s work on interoperability is dependent on the outcome of the consultation.

In advance of moving SMETS1 meters into the DCC, industry is separately developing interim solutions that could enable consumers with SMETS1 meters to retain their smart services upon switching supplier. Those solutions are scheduled to begin testing from 2017.