Smart meter installations in GB have rebounded after the winter lockdown restricted engineers from visiting homes and businesses for non-essential work. There were 219,000 installs in March 2021 – 34 percent more than the month before.
This month-on-month increase is likely due to decreasing Covid-19 infection rates and the success of the NHS vaccination programme allowing more engineers to visit homes.
There were also 30 percent more installations in March 2021 than March last year when the effects of Covid-19 on the smart meter rollout first became apparent. Installations dropped by 27 percent in March 2020 compared to the month before.
Over half a million smart meter installations have taken place in 2021 so far.
As per usual, East England led the regional race with 31,000 installations, followed by Southern England with 30,000 and the East Midlands with 24,000.
All visits from smart meter engineers remain Covid safe with mandatory measures to prevent transmission of the virus.
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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NOTES:
The analysis is based on the D0150 data flows transmitted across our network and we believe capture the vast majority of electricity 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.
