Smart meter installations in May 2021 increased 1,188 percent compared to the same month last year as the smart meter rollout continues to recover from lockdown restrictions.
218,000 smart meter installations took place in May – up from May 2020’s installation total which barely exceeded 17,000 thanks to the first national lockdown.
Cumulative installations since the start of the rollout now falls just below 15.7 million, with 968,000 of those since the start of 2021.
Regions with the highest number of installations last month were East England and Southern England with 28,000 and the East Midlands with 21,000.
Last week it was announced that the All Reasonable Steps (ARS) obligation for suppliers to install smart meters in homes has been extended by six months from 1 July 2021 to 31 December 2021.
According to Cornwall Insight, the government expressed its “view that COVID-19 has impacted on suppliers’ abilities to meet the ARS obligation, and suppliers told the government that COVID-19 has also impacted on their ability to prepare for the new four-year framework, due to come in once the ARS obligation ends.
“The framework would set energy suppliers annual, individual installation targets on a trajectory to 100% coverage, subject to an annual tolerance level. For the domestic rollout, the tolerance levels are Year 1 = 3.5% and Year 2= 5.1%. For the non-domestic, Year 1= 6.1%; Year 2= 8.3%.”
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.