Smart meter installations began to show signs of recovery in June, with the figure nearing 69,000, which is 25 percent more than the previous month. However, this number is still 67 percent less than the installation numbers we were seeing in June 2019.
This, of course, reflects the challenging circumstances that are a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures put in place to reduce the spread of infection. At the peak of social distancing measures, to ensure the safety of households and field engineers, a ban was introduced for all non-essential site visits. This resulted in a sharp decrease of GB’s smart meter installs in March and April.
At the end of May, non-essential site visits were resumed, which resulted in an increase in installations of 49 percent against April but this was exceeded again in June by 25 percent.
Southern England had the most installations with 9,222 installs followed by the East of England with 8,910 and East Midlands with 7,524. The cumulative number of installations since the programme began is 13,465,127.
In Q3 last year, BEIS announced the smart meter installs rollout deadline would be pushed back to 2024, and Ofgem has indicated it will review its planned works for 2020.
These insights were provided by ElectraLink’s Data Transfer Service Operations Team. For any questions on the information or data sources, please contact our Helpdesk at [email protected] or call 020 7432 3012 for any questions about our energy market data services.
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The analysis is based on the D0150 data flows transmitted across our network and we believe capture the vast majority of smart meter installations.
The users of the DTS have given ElectraLink permission to intercept and analyse this, and other data flows, subject to certain conditions.
Our analysis defines smart meters as those models with the capability to handle time of use tariffs and which can be remotely updated.
For installations after September 2013, we count all meters flagged as SMETS1, SMETS2 or non-SMETS. For installations before the industry standard designation was agreed, the allocation is based on the make and model of meter.