A man from Ilford has secured a traineeship with UK Power Networks to support the national smart meter roll-out.

Peter McIntosh, 54, is among the first of 17 new smart meter trainees recruited by the company which owns and maintains the electricity for eight million customers across the south.

He said: “I am at a point in my career when I am looking for a good, stable employer that looks after its staff and so far UK Power Networks has done that.”

During the 18-month training programme, Peter will learn what to do when called in by energy suppliers facing technical difficulties and how to replace equipment, known as the ‘cut-out’, which joins the customers’ internal wiring to the electricity mains.

The national smart meter roll-out is a government plan to replace old-style gas and electricity meters with smart meters, between 2015 and 2020. Smart meters measure your exact gas and electricity usage and then send the information back to your energy supplier.

Paul Morris, intervention planning manager at UK Power Networks, said: “We are delighted to be recruiting our first smart meter intervention trainees dedicated to helping the national smart meter roll-out, go as smoothly as possible.”