§ Mr. Chapmanasked the Secretary of State for Energy whether he will make a statement about the prospects for introducing a joint meter reading system for the gas and electricity industries.
§ Mr. Norman LamontA series of five different studies over the period 1954–1973 indicated that the savings achievable in meter reading costs would be largely or wholly offset by the additional costs of setting up and running a joint system. Three of these studies were by independent bodies. The most recent of these was in 1969. However, I have recently asked the industries to re-assess the position to take account of any changes over the past few years which mighy have shifted the balance of costs and benefits. They have now advised me that, in their view, the prospects are, if anything, even less favourable than at the time of the earlier studies.
Both industries advise that a joint system would require either the re-referencing and re-organising of their existing computer systems and files or the devising of an additional common reference which could be linked to the industries' present customer reference codes. The industries have no doubt that the costs involved in either of these changes could not be justified by any resulting savings, nor are there at present any technical developments in prospect which would help to make joint meter reading a more viable proposition in the longer term.
I understand that better prospects for obtaining real savings are offered by a possible reduction in the frequency with which meters are read and perhaps, in the longer term, the introduction of remote meter reading. Both industries are examining possible variations in reading and billing frequencies. For example, the industries might, depending on customers' views, move in the long term to reading meters at, say, half-yearly intervals, but billing more frequently. Two electricity boards are currently involved in limited field trials of remote metering and the industry is investigating the questions of load control, tele-switching and metering. The British Gas Corporation is also involved in the proposals for future pilot field trials to assess economic and practical viability. Any time scale for developing remote meter reading and load control on an operational basis throughout the country will be long term and will depend on the results of these investigations and trials, technological developments in the electronecs field, and the formidable task of installing the equipment in millions of customers' homes.