RTS switch off delayed

The UK government has announced a delay to the switch off of the technology which controls Radio Teleswitch (RTS) electricity meters. The switch off was due to take place throughout the UK on 30 June 2025, but will now be phased in gradually, beginning on a significantly smaller scale in areas with very few RTS customers.  

In advance of any phase out activity in their area, households will be contacted by their energy supplier to inform them well ahead of time, before their meters are affected. If your property is tenanted and the tenants pay the electricity bill, this communication will go to them. If your property has an RTS meter it is strongly advisable to contact your tenants to ask them to keep an eye out for this communication and act on it when it arrives, otherwise any electric storage heaters or hot water tanks in the property may cease to function when the RTS technology is switched off in their area.

Your property is most likely to have an RTS meter if it is heated by electric storage heaters. The RTS automatically switches the electricity between peak and off peak rates in the morning and evening, and can also be used to turn heating and hot water systems on and off at specific times of the day.  

The service was introduced in the 1980s and, as planned, is now reaching the end of its life. But slow progress to replace these meters has left around 314,000 households still using them as of May 2025 – equal to around 1% of British households.