Smart meter installations rise year on year for the first time since Covid-19 lockdown

Increased Installations

The number of smart meter installations in September 2020 was 232,000 an increase of 1.8% on the previous year's figure of 228,000 installations.

Energy suppliers had struggled to keep up the pace of the smart meter rollout after the government locked down the country in March as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Due to social distancing rules, energy companies were unable to dispatch engineers to install smart meters. Now with the rules eased they’ve been working hard to make up lost ground since June.

Also read: Smart Meter Installations resume as lockdown restrictions ease

Extension 

Because of Covid, the government extended the obligation for energy suppliers to take all reasonable steps to get smart meters into their customers' homes and small businesses by six months.

Energy suppliers now have until July 2021 to meet their initial 2020 installation milestones.

Every month since the rollout reopened has seen installations increase month on month. In August, installations were 20% up on July’s figure and July’s figure were 120% up on June’s figure.

Generation 1 meters posing a problem

Since the start of the smart meter rollout, over 14 million have been installed with the one-millionth of this year being installed early in September.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of smart meters installed are SMETS 1 meters. These smart meters have thrown a spanner in the ambitions of achieving the rollout as they have technical issues that essentially make them ‘dumb’ if a consumer decides to switch their energy supplier.

There are an estimated 16.1 million SMETS 1 meters installed in homes up and down the country and their tendency to stop working when a switch is made has caused significant harm to confidence in the rollout.

Out of those 16 million meters, millions are estimated to be in ‘dumb’ mode and are effectively useless.

As of October 9^th, 2020, only 1.5 million smart meters have been connected via the fix meaning that there are at least 14 million still requiring an upgrade.

Also read: Number of installed SMETS2 smart meters hits five million mark (only another 22 million to go)

Fix rollout

Fortunately, there is a fix that is currently being rolled out to SMETS 1 meters. The fix will connect the meters to the central wireless network and the DCC. This should allow the meters to become ‘smart’ once more and allow a customer to switch to a new energy supplier without issue.

The rollout of this fix began back in July 2019 and is not expected to be completed until 2021 at the earliest. 

Further Reading

Ofgem to introduce new rules to help customers struggling with energy bills- what does this mean for energy suppliers?

World Energy Outlook 2020: The Key points for Energy Suppliers

How can Energy Suppliers reduce Energy Billing Errors?

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