Just over 22 million smart and advanced meters have been installed in the UK according to the latest government figures. Yet as the original deadline for the rollout draws closer, the sector is still around 30 million devices short of completing this mammoth task.
Last year the government announced it would be introducing a new rollout framework which will extend the deadline by four years to 2024. This was subsequently moved by a further six months to factor in the effects of the pandemic.
Matthew Roderick, founder and chief executive of n3rgy
Roderick previously spent five years at the Data Communications Company (DCC) as its chief technology/ innovation officer. He believes the sector understood several years ago that the technological complexities of the rollout would mean 2020 was “maybe impossible”.
He says: “There was always an enormous mountain to climb to achieve 2020. Within the first few years it started to become quite clear that that would be an incredibly challenging target. My involvement was just getting the basic system to work, the complexities involved getting into around 30 million homes and installing those meters were yet to come. By 2016-17, in many people’s minds, 2020 was an extremely challenging, maybe impossible target.”
Roderick adds that in his view, the sector can “comfortably” get to around 75-85 per cent by mid-2025 but there will be a “long tail” of difficult properties that will go way beyond this date.
“The purpose of the rollout is to get clearer energy bills for the population and to start measuring, and ultimately discouraging, the generation of carbon. An 80-90 per cent smart meter coverage is an excellent start to set this on track for the various regional and national programmes for decarbonisation and net zero”, he adds.
Doug Stewart, chief executive of Green Energy UK
For Stewart, the rollout would have been better handled by network companies as opposed to retailers.
He says: “What we have is a programme that was poorly thought out, poorly executed, and erroneously promoted to the public. It was always ambitious.
“But it was given to suppliers to implement, when giving the role to distribution companies would have allowed for a regional street-by-street rollout, the data would have been collected by the people who had the most efficiency gains to harvest from the information smart meters could collect, and the need for a fragmented and diverse meter installation programme would have been avoided.”
He adds: “If the smart meter programme had been devised on the basis of cooperation and how it would deliver the objectives as seamlessly as a possible, rather than from a government position of distrust of the industry, an obsession with rip-off tariffs, a general distaste for the profit motive and making energy a political football, it would have had a better chance of success and we‘d all be done and dusted by now.”
Philippe Commaret, EDF Energy’s managing director of retail
“When thinking about the broader rollout, it is true that overall demand for smart meters from customers has been consistently lower than we’d hoped. But if the pandemic has taught me anything about the rollout, it is that smart meters are extremely empowering for customers – they give up-to-date and accurate information about how much energy is being used and allow smart pay as you go customers to top-up from the comfort of their home.
“We need to work hard in 2021, alongside industry and government, to communicate these benefits to customers so we can start to see a bigger shift in customer demand.”
Juliet Davenport, founder and chief executive of Good Energy
“Government targets to install smart meters are meaningless unless they embrace a zero-carbon future. Potentially millions of consumers have already been left with obsolete devices. Good Energy has always argued that smart meters need to support the zero-carbon transition, from solar panels to electric vehicles.
“The next generation of devices are much more intelligent and have the potential to completely change the way we consume energy.”
Chris Lovatt, chief operating officer of Eon Energy Infrastructure Services
“We’ve been leaders in smart metering for over a decade and have installed some 3 million meter upgrades for our customers. While we’ve seen delays to the overall programme timeframes over the years, due most recently to the pandemic, it’s crucial that all suppliers maintain focus and pace to ensure smart meters are installed in as many properties as possible across Britain.
“Smart meters are key to a smarter energy future and we simply must continue to install them safely and efficiently so customers can reap the many benefits, regardless of the timescales involved.”