Smart electricity meter installations for January 2022 were down by a quarter compared to the same month in 2020, the latest Electralink figures show.
There were 185,000 installations last month, 24% more than January 2021 when the UK was in the midst of a national lockdown.
Yet despite the increase, January 2022’s figures are still around 25% short of the last pre-pandemic January in 2020 when there were 246,000 installations.
The company said regional distribution of installation rates remained consistent in January, with East England, Southern England and the East Midlands recording the most installs last month:
- East England – 24,000 (2 million cumulative)
- Southern England – 21,000 (1.76 million cumulative)
- East Midlands – 19,000 (1.78 million cumulative)
Pandemic lockdowns have severely hindered the smart meter rollout, with engineers initially only able to install meters on an emergency basis.
Last month Electralink released figures which suggested the installation programme was exhibiting signs of partial recovery from the impact of the pandemic.
Due to Covid, 2020 saw a 27% decrease in installations on 2019 and the lowest tally since 2016.
Installations of smart electricity meters reached more than 2.4 million last year, compared to just shy of 2 million in the year previously.
The figure in 2021 however is still down significantly on the roughly 2.7 million installations recorded in 2019.