Smart electricity meter installations bounced back to pre-pandemic levels in April following the easing of lockdown restrictions, the latest figures show.
According to Electralink’s Data Transfer Service there were 218,000 installations in Great Britain last month – 17 times more than in April last year as the country went into lockdown.
In total, just 12,000 installations occurred in April 2020 as non-essential home visits were halted. This represented a 95 per cent decrease compared to the year before.
Installation rates have fluctuated in line with lockdown restrictions over the past year but are now at pre-pandemic levels.
The regions with most installations last month include East England with 30,000, Southern England with 29,000 and the East Midlands with 22,000.
The latest government figures show there were 23.6 million smart and advanced meters in homes and small businesses in Great Britain as of 31 December 2020.
Overall, energy suppliers installed a total of 3.2 million smart and advanced meters last year.
Meanwhile, figures from the Data Communications Company (DCC) show that more than 11.8 million smart meters have been connected to its secure network.
Of these, 7.6 million are second-generation (SMETS2) devices, whilst 4.1 million first-generation (SMETS1) devices have been migrated.
Additionally, 175 per cent more messages were sent on the network in April than in the same month last year.