Shetland Times Column 23rd May 2025
While the Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS) switch-off is technically a reserved rather than devolved matter, it affects thousands of homes across Scotland. Around 125,000 according to latest figures, including 17,000 in Edinburgh and 22,500 in Glasgow.
In my members’ debate on Tuesday, I once again raised the problems that many people in Shetland are experiencing when trying to replace their RTS meter. I had previously raised the RTS issue in a debate which was the final one before summer recess last June.
RTS was a revolution when developed in the 1980s as a means to switch electricity meters between different tariff rates at different times of the day, allowing for the cost effective and efficient use of storage heaters.
The signal to switch between timings is broadcast by the BBC, which has had a long-standing arrangement with the Energy Networks Association to transmit a teleswitching signal on the BBC Radio 4 Longwave frequency.
Support for the RTS signal will end on 30th June, a date that has already been pushed back several times, and the technology that supports the signal is reportedly already well past its ‘end of life’.
I was able to highlight the impact on people in Shetland, many of whom have struggled to get an appointment with an engineer from their electricity supplier to swap out their meters.
I heard from one constituent in the North Isles who waited in all day on Monday for their appointment and the engineer didn’t turn up. It turned out that they hadn’t been booked on the ferry.
We don’t know what will happen if RTS meters aren’t exchanged by the time the RTS signal is turned off, and other MSPs who contributed to the debate raised the impact on rural and islands areas across Scotland from the Borders to the Northern Isles.
It is disgraceful that that this national infrastructure transition has been so badly planned and it seems that only now at the eleventh hour efforts are being made to increase the level of activity from energy suppliers to swap out meters, but it’s too little too late.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, I attended the event in Mareel where the Viking Genes Shetland Community Screening Project was launched. Professor Jim Flett Wilson has already done sterling work with the Viking Genes project and the testimonies from people who had genetic life-threatening risks identified and subsequent treatment for illnesses they didn’t know they had, are powerful.
The committee of local volunteers has kicked off the Viking Genes Fund with an aim to raise £1 million so that 5,000 people with Shetland ancestry can be screened during the four-year project. More information can be found at: www.viking.ed.ac.uk/screening-shetland