ECONOMY 7 SUPPLIER CONTRACT OFFERS BEYOND RTS CUT OFF DATE

robcjones

Some suppliers are offering contracts that extend beyond the RTS switch off date of 31/3/2024 so how are the suppliers intending to honour this when there is no RTS? How will suppliers calculate your electricity useage at night?

Gerry1

Welcome to the forum.

It's very unlikely that RTS will be switched off on 1 April 2024, that's merely the end of the existing contract.

It's been extended many times before and will almost certainly be extended again.

It's not like a car fob that locks and unlocks the doors with single clicks, more like a clock radio.

Even if Radio 4 Long Wave disappeared, your RTS would probably carry on as usual, just drifting a minute a month or so.

dunstonh

robcjones said:

Some suppliers are offering contracts that extend beyond the RTS switch off date of 31/3/2024 so how are the suppliers intending to honour this when there is no RTS? How will suppliers calculate your electricity useage at night?

a) its unlikely to be cut off in March
b) e7 wont stop working.    Although time synchronisation could drift over the years
c) problem goes away with smart meter installation.

TheElectricCow

Assuming your current meter was absolutely reliant on RTS to start with (many E7 meters aren’t), they would simply install a new meter when necessary and any potential issues would be resolved.

Scot_39

robcjones said:

Some suppliers are offering contracts that extend beyond the RTS switch off date of 31/3/2024 so how are the suppliers intending to honour this when there is no RTS? How will suppliers calculate your electricity useage at night?

The majority of e7 meters are not rts - and many that are - the rts signal is not used to differ timings weekly or seasonally with weather like at least one of the more advanced SP rts tariffs.

There are risks that some will not switch properly, but others suggest most rts meters will continue to operate but with clock drift - similar to old mechanical timer .set-up.

It would however be reassuring if suppliers, Ofgem or whoever, would give a definitive answer for if not all of the the installed systems - at least the majority.

However that may have been seen by Ofgem as reducing pressure on suppliers ahead of deadlines.

And for more complex RTS - those suppliers who say modern smets2 single meters cannot support at all - they also need to produce a clear solution / strategy.

As we're instructed to in Mar 22 instruction by Ofgem for the Mar 23 deadline if not in fact long before.

PHMAL

Elexon and ENA have told me RTS will most likely be extended to April 2025. Hopefully there will be more official news from ENA soon. 

Gerry1

PHMAL said:

Elexon and ENA have told me RTS will most likely be extended to April 2025. Hopefully there will be more official news from ENA soon. 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80530861/#Comment_80530861

Scot_39

PHMAL said:

Elexon and ENA have told me RTS will most likely be extended to April 2025. Hopefully there will be more official news from ENA soon. 

Elexon only really care about billing at grid level for the facility.

They don't actually regulate the meter policy or BBC iirc owned LW transmitter availability.

They have already had to extend the billing period - and so have set another nominal endpoint based on 2025 dates.

Both Ofgem and ENA still talk of Apr 24 deadline - but ENA now quote c800,000 RTS meters still in field - lower than the 0.94m late 23 Elexon estimate.  But that Elexon graph showed only c10k reduction per month.

At that rate would need several years.

So their is clearly a looming conflict if not yet a crisis.

I suspect Ofgem will not offer suppliers summer 25 - 6-12m more likely.  And suspect that like past smart targets will fail.

And iirc some articles have suggested BBC will not be at all keen to replace certain essential pieces of now old kit should it fail ahead of planned late 2025 shutdown date.

So expect them to ask for additional special extra funding as well.

Which Ofgem will allow customers to pay.

Qyburn

Scot_39 said:

And iirc some articles have suggested BBC will not be at all keen to replace certain essential pieces of now old kit should it fail ahead of planned late 2025 shutdown date.

At some point it will be no longer possible. From press article more than 10 years ago ..

"BBC Radio 4 long wave, which transmits on the 198 kilohertz frequency, relies on ageing transmitter equipment that uses a pair of the valves – no longer manufactured – to function.

The valves, at Droitwich in Worcestershire, are so rare that engineers say there are fewer than 10 in the world, and the BBC has been forced to buy up the entire global supply. Each lasts anywhere between one and 10 years, and when one of the last two blows the service will go quiet."

PHMAL

BBC non commital during VERY recent correpondence ; they say ENA announcement about extensibg RTS beyond this March must be soon. 

PHMAL

A while vack, the BBC told me there is no planned date for closing the LW Platform.