G4S Utility Services (G4S) begins 2013 as the leading provider of utility meter reading services in the UK with the announcement it has been named as preferred bidder to manage the national meter portfolio for British Gas.

From April 2013, G4S will be reading all conventional electricity and gas meters for British Gas customers, as well as providing full data management services including data processing, data aggregation and meter operator services for both fuels.

The seven-year contract, worth at least £150 million, will involve the reading and data management of approximately seventeen million energy meters, country wide.

Kim Challis, Chief Executive Officer, Government and Outsourcing Solutions at G4S, said:

“G4S and British Gas have enjoyed a successful relationship for over 16 years and we are delighted to be working with them on this major contract.

“As conventional pedestrian meter reading is phased out with the introduction of Smart meters we are now well on our way to be the only independent provider of pedestrian meter reading services to the national utility companies. We look forward to working with British Gas during the Smart metering rollout years and provide it with a comprehensive range of metering services, including installation of electricity Smart meters for commercial customers”.

The contract, which was previously split between G4S and Siemens Metering Services, will see almost 700 meter operatives transfer across to G4S under TUPE regulations, with the first wave of transfers beginning in April. All employees are expected to have completed the transfer to G4S by July 2013.

In total, the company expects to take approximately 40 million meter readings from British Gas customers every year from the start of the contract.

ENDS

British Gas is the UK's leading energy supplier, and serves around 12 million homes in Britain – nearly half of the country's homes – as well as providing energy to one million UK businesses. British Gas provides value for money, dedicated customer service, innovative energy solutions and the highest quality Home Services expertise in the country. Find out more at www.britishgas.co.uk

G4S Utility Services was founded in 1996 and its data collectors and meter workers make over 60 million visits to properties per year throughout the UK on behalf of major utility companies.

In addition to its established field services and national field force of multi skilled employees, it also has a proprietary Smart metering solution that can communicate with all common meter types using a variety of communications methods. This Smart metering system allows G4S to provide a full end to end smart solution including half hourly data retrieval and energy management information. For more information please visit www.g4s.com/utilityservices