On 18/06/2025 22:39, John Armstrong wrote:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g2qp8wed0o.amp
I see that the government is now saying that there will be "a cautious
and targeted phase out" of Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS) meters.
Something over 300,000 households are still using these meters. I am one user, although by a remarkable coincidence my meter is due to be
replaced tomorrow (Thursday) morning.
The article goes on to state that Simon Francis, coordinator of the End
Fuel Poverty Coalition has called for a plan "that sets out how the
gradual switch-off will take place, including which regions will be
affected and when".
Given that there are only three LF transmitters covering the whole of
the UK (Droitwich, Westerglen, and Burghead) I find it hard to
understand how a "gradual switch off" and "a cautious and targeted phase
out" will be accomplished.
Or am I missing something?
Well I assumed the switching times are staggered to avoid a large surge
bit it appears the service is more complex and the system allows a
granular control of groups of meters:-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_teleswitch
"Each of the user companies (the RTS Users, or Service Providers) has
its own database on the Central Teleswitch Control Unit (CTCU), which is
an HPE Integrity computer running OpenVMS on IA-64 for reliability and clustering technology to minimise downtime.
The database defines how each group of teleswitches belonging to the user-company will control the loads and meter registers connected to it.
The CTCU uses the database and certain rules to generate and control a continuous string of messages, which is forwarded to the BBC for
transmission.
Although each message will be received by all installed teleswitches,
the unique user and group-codes carried by the message ensure that only teleswitches carrying the same combination of codes will act on it."
.. so a gradual switch off by region, company or a combination is
possible...
Dave
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