STUDENT Usman Hussain got a shock when his smart meter told him he had used £70,000 worth of energy in just one week.

The reading had started out at £9,600 seven days ago and by today had shot up further, mounting to £70,000, said Usman, who lives with his family in Jer Lane, Horton Bank Top.

The 20-year-old said he was left gobsmacked and stunned on the first day it happened before realising through social media that he was not the only customer to have gone way over budget with energy provider SSE.

“The first day it happened, my meter said I would be charged nearly £9,600 for the day’s electricity and gas. Usually it’s just £2 or £3 so I knew something had gone badly wrong.

“I contacted SSE and they got back to me pretty quick saying they’d had a blip while upgrading some software and not to worry - I wouldn’t be charged for it! I knew it wasn’t right in the first place but it was still a huge relief to hear that! It was a massive shock at first. Five days later it was still happening and the readings had totalled about £70,000,” he said.

The average annual bill for a medium-sized house in the UK is around £830. Mr Hussain added: “For £70,000 I could buy a house in Bradford. I thought they’d billed me for the whole street and the rest of the neighbourhood.”

Mr Hussain said he has had the smart meter since last August and has never had an issue with it before. The Big Six provider has now launched an urgent investigation into the devices.

SSE said it was aware of an issue affecting ‘a small number’ of its smart meters.

A spokesman for SSE said: “SSE would like to apologise for any concern this issue may have caused customers and would stress they are not being charged any more than normal. Their bills will be completely unaffected as the problem only affects the information being shown on their in-home display (or SET); not the smart meter itself. SSE is working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and would additionally advise customers to log on to their online account if they’d like to double check information about their usage, as we can confirm the information here is accurate. We are in the process of communicating directly with all of the affected customers to explain the situation and update them on our progress." Anyone with further concerns can call SSE on 0345 0713991.”