Britain’s smart meter installation programme has partially recovered from the impact of Covid-19 after a 21 percent increase in the number of installations in 2021 compared to 2020.

December’s installations reached 154,000 – 10 percent less than December 2020 and 32 percent less than November 2021. Despite this month-on-month decline, the 2021 installation total reached 2.417mn compared to 1.997mn in 2020.

The smart meter installation programme was dealt a blow during the pandemic lockdowns of 2020 when engineers could only install meters on an urgent basis. Despite a lengthy lockdown in early 2021, installation rates bounced back during the summer months.

The regions with the highest number of installations included:

  • East England – 21,000 smart meter installations in December and 2.06mn since the rollout began,
  • Southern England – 17,000 smart meter installations in December and 1.73mn since the rollout began,
  • East Midlands – 16,000 smart meter installations in December and 1.75mn since the rollout began,
  • West Midlands – 14,000 smart meter installations in December and 1.54mn since the rollout began,
  • And North West England – 12,000 smart meter installations in December and 1.47mn since the rollout began.

Cumulative installations for Wales, Scotland and England since 2012 now stand at 17.2mn.

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]. Call 020 7432 3012 for any questions about our energy market data services or visit the Energy Market Data Hub section of our website.

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NOTES:

These figures represent electricity smart meter installations in GB.

The analysis is based on the D0150 data flows transmitted across our network and we believe capture the vast majority of electricity smart installs.

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.