Instead Utilita’s chief executive Bill Bullen warned the industry at a conference today that the smart meter rollout could result in “massive disengagement.”
The smart meter rollout is widely touted as the solution to ending the billing issues that have plagued energy suppliers, and increase trust in the market.
Bullen said: “My concern in the future with smart metering is that with the solution that is being put forward, it’s just going to make everybody as bad as each other and I think there is a chance that actually we will get massive disengagement.”
Utilita has been installing prepayment meters since 2008 with the majority of its customers on smart prepayment.
“As a company we are already 90 per cent smart so we are certainly not fearful of smart meters but what the programme failed to recognise is there are different consumers out there, and the benefits vary considerably between those consumers.
“For prepayment customers the benefits are enormous, they are off the scale.”
Bullen also said “some mistakes had been made” in planning the rollout, particularly the choice of a monopoly service provider which he said would “stifle innovation.”
“The Data and Communications Company (DCC) is a monopoly service provider, it’s going to stifle innovations, and it’s not good for differentiation.”
“I don’t know what that is, and im a fairly knowledgeable person saying that, and yet we have a service that is basically stifling innovation.”