Supply chain issues and a global shortage of technical components could impact the smart meter rollout warns Elexon
Elexon has raised a new BSC issue that a global shortage of electronic and technical components caused by the Covid-19 pandemic could impact the smart meter rollout.
What’s happening?
The Covid-19 pandemic has massively impacted global supply chains and resulted in a shortage of materials. The construction industry, car manufacturers, computer companies and many more sectors have all been hit hard by the shortages.
The shortage of materials has got so bad that Elexon issued a new Balancing Settlement Code (BSC) issue (97) in its August report. It said:
‘Due to a global shortage of materials and the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 on global supply chains, there is a shortage of semi-conductors among other crucial components, which impacts the ability of Meter manufacturers to produce Meters. Through engagement with industry colleagues, we have become aware that this is impacting the availability of various types of electricity meters including those required for Settlement under the BSC.
‘This shortage of Settlement Meters could impact on several BSC processes. Our understanding is that this issue is also impacting the availability of Current Transformer (CT) Metering, which has the highest potential for material impact (due to usually being installed at higher consumption/higher voltage sites).
‘Thankfully it is currently our understanding that shortages are not impacting on CVA Metering however we will continue to monitor this. We have been made aware of force majeure event notifications being issued by BSC Party Agents to their customers concerning Meter stock levels. To reiterate, this issue has the potential to significantly impact Meter installations and meter fault resolution, which in turn has the potential to impact the accuracy of Settlement.’
Also read: Debunking the most common myths about Smart Meters
What will the impact be?
Elexon said that it believes that Issue 97 will have the biggest impact on Meter Operator Agents, Data Collectors, Data Aggregators and Energy suppliers.
With energy suppliers stepping up their efforts to get as many smart meters installed into homes and small businesses as possible a shortage of smart meters would see those efforts grind to a halt. While most suppliers have a large stock of the meters, newer challenger energy suppliers may struggle to get to source them if the shortages continue for the foreseeable future.
Elexon suggested that component shortage is an issue that might also need to be raised with other industry Codes and bodies, such as the Retail Energy Code (REC), Smart Energy Code (SEC), Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and/or Ofgem.
A meeting on the issue is due to take place near the end of the month.
Also read: Total Number of Installed Smart Meters surpasses 16 million
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