Meter Services: Important update

We wanted to let you know of the challenges that meter operators are now facing from the meter supply chain and how it might affect our services to you.

The metering industry is heavily reliant on global supply chains for materials and components, as well as an available workforce to manufacture, test, calibrate and ship metering products.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused considerable global disruption, shutting down operations or reducing output at factories and test facilities across the globe which has resulted in a shortage of the materials necessary to manufacture the meters.

As a result of the shortage there is limited production resulting in inevitable disruptions and delays. In particular, there is a global shortage of key electronic components which are essential to the manufacture of meters such as:

	Semiconductors
	Transceivers
	Microcontrollers
	Batteries
	LCD screens

 

What does this mean for supply

The semiconductor and chip crisis has been in the public domain for the past few weeks. This component shortage has resulted in default on delivery of existing meter orders and vastly extended lead times for new meter orders. The situation is evolving but it is expected that delivery uncertainty will remain until well into 2022.

Meter operators are examining alternate supply routes but options are very limited due to the small number of meter types that have regulatory approval for the UK market and the global nature of the component shortages.

Under current usage, our suppliers do not anticipate any impact to non-half hourly metering services. However, the stock levels of half hourly meters are low and we expect all stocks to be exhausted by late August.

 

Implications for Half Hourly metering services

The implications for Half Hourly metering services are:

	HH meters with faults – Where a replacement is needed this will still take place however may be subject to delays while new stock is sourced and shipped
	Meter reaching or reached the end of life will not be replaced until stock permits (no loss of supply will happen, this simply means you will be billed to estimated usage for a period of time)
	Suspend MOP replacements
	No new connections or siteworks can be completed when meter stocks run out (End of August)

 

If you have a project in progress and believe you will need a HH meter, please let us know urgently so we can attempt to get a meter put aside for your project. We can’t guarantee anything but we will make every effort to secure a meter for you. Technical information about your site may be required to secure the correct size meter.

Rest assured, we continue to work with our supply chain to pursue any avenues available to reduce the impact as much as possible.

 

If you have any queries feel free to get in touch with our dedicated Energy team on energy@espo.org.