More than 30 million smart and advanced meters have been installed in Great Britain, the latest government figures have revealed.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has released its latest quarterly statistics on the rollout which includes information on the number of smart meters installed in domestic properties and smaller non-domestic sites by large energy suppliers in Q3 2022.
It said that as of the end of September, 30.3 million of the devices had been installed, meaning 54% of all electricity and gas meters are now either smart or advanced.
Despite the milestone, 3.8 million of these devices (13% of smart meters) are operating in “dumb” or “traditional mode” which means they do not have their smart capabilities. However, the number of smart meters operating in smart mode increased by 4% when compared to the previous quarter.
BEIS added that 47% of all meters are either advanced meters or smart meters operating in smart mode, with a further 7% being smart meters operating in traditional mode.
The department said 836,800 smart meters were installed by large energy suppliers in domestic properties in Q3. This is a 3% increase in installations compared to the previous quarter but a 5% decrease on the same quarter last year which BEIS said is in part due to fewer working days.
There were a total of 23.8 million gas and 28.8 million electricity meters operated by large energy suppliers in domestic properties across Great Britain as at the end of Q3. Overall, 24.7 million were smart meters operating in smart mode.
Meanwhile, large suppliers installed 44,900 smart and advanced meters in smaller non-domestic sites, which is an increase of 57% on the previous quarter and the highest on record.
“This was entirely a result of an increase in smart meters installations rather than advanced installations,” said BEIS.
Large suppliers were operating 1.2 million advanced meters and smart meters in smart mode in non-domestic properties at the end of the quarter, representing 46% of the overall number of meters in these properties.
