Elexon has sent out a call to the electricity industry to provide information about whether electricity meters are in short supply as a result of component shortages and supply chain challenges. It has wants responses by 16:00 on Thursday 3 March.
The electricity settlements company, which also manages the Balanciing and Settlements Code that governs industry participants, says a global shortage of materials such as semi-conductors and Covid-19 have combined to reduce the availability of meters from manufacturers. A shortage of meters used in industry settlement could affect industry processes.
In December, following two ‘issues workgroup’ meetings, Elexon wrote to Secretary of State Kwasi Kwarteng MP to warn of potential challenges linked to issues with global supply chains.
It said domestic smart meters were currently available, and were likely to remain so over the coming year – but there were shortages of communication hubs, without which smart meters cannot be installed.
Elexon also warned of feedback that there is a “significant risk of shortages of automatic meter reading (AMR) and current transformer (CT) metering” which are used for sites using large amounts of energy. Responses from manufacturers highlighted “medium to high risk for AMR and CT Metering availability in the next three, six and twelve months”, the letter warned.
Elexon also noted that meter stocks are managed by third parties, so suppliers who had provided information might not have the full picture. It said, “A major meter manufacturer stated they have already been having meetings around constrained stock and were surprised and sceptical about the supplier assessment of the current low impact.”
Low meter availability affects fault resolution and new connections, Elexon said, adding “the risk associated with new connections has the potential for wider economic impacts and presents a risk to security of supply.”
See more detail from the issue workgroup and complete the survey here