The independent supplier has urged Smart Energy GB, the organisation responsible for the national advertising programme, to scrap its planned campaign after the Data and Communications Company (DCC) said it was planning to delay the start of the mass installation of the meters by “at least four months”.
Outsourcing company Capita, which is running the DCC, is consulting on the delay, which could push the mass rollout of smart meters from the end of next year potentially back until October 2016, adding £90 million to the cost of the programme.
First Utility is concerned that running the campaign “will heighten demand before the technology is widely available”.
Co-founder and chief financial officer of First Utility, Darren Braham, said: “We are deeply concerned that Smart Energy GB intends to press ahead with a £25 million nationwide campaign to promote smart meters in 2015, despite the expected delay until the following year.
“It is a gross waste of money that will ultimately be borne by the bill payers.
“We are passionate about helping people reduce their energy bills, and we can’t in good conscience condone this spend to promote a product at a time when it isn’t widely available.”
However, Smart Energy GB responded by saying a centrally run advertisement campaign would avoid the “wasteful duplication what would come from every energy supplier running its own marketing campaign” and added that First Utility may be opposing the planned campaign “for its own commercial reasons”.
It added that its plans have been “designed to carefully match the Government’s projected national rollout of smart meters”.
Age UK’s special adviser and consumer representative on the board of Smart Energy GB, said: “By delivering an efficient, co-ordinated message through Smart Energy GB, the wasteful costs of different energy suppliers each running their own campaigns about smart meters are avoided.
“Smart Energy GB’s approach is better value for money and makes most sense.”