44% of all UK energy meters are now smart or advanced

The UK smart meter rollout has edged closer to its landmark halfway point in terms of total installations, according to latest Government statistics.

As of 31 March 2021, there were 24.2 million smart and advanced meters in homes and small businesses in Great Britain, of which 19.8 million were operating in smart mode or advanced meters.

This represents 36% of all meters, with a further 8% of meters being smart meters in traditional mode, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) reported.

It means a total of 44% of all meters were smart or advanced meters at the end of the first quarter (Q1) of this year, an increase of five percentage points in the last 12 months.

In Q1 2021, large energy suppliers installed 760,900 smart meters, which was 213,900 less than Q4 2020, reflecting the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions that hampered installation activity at the start of this year.

However, the BEIS statistics – which cover installation activity between January and March 2021 – do not reflect latest industry figures from ElectraLink, which indicate a robust industry recovery from the end of March onwards.

According to ElectraLink, the 219,000 installs completed in March 2021 were 34 percent higher than the month before, whilst a further 218,000 smart meters were installed in April, a 1700% increase on the same month last year when initial pandemic lockdown restrictions were first enforced.

All visits from the UK’s smart meter engineers remain COVID-safe, with mandatory measures to prevent transmission of the virus.

You can read SMS’s COVID-19 installation measures, here.

Delivering the UK smart meter rollout

We are the country’s leading smart meter installation and asset provider, that’s why energy suppliers count on us to deliver smart meters to their customers around Britain.

• • If you are an energy supplier, visit our smart metering & data page.
  • If you are a domestic consumer, go to smart homes.
  • If you are interested in our direct metering and data services for I&C organisations, go to our metering for business page.