Sharp drop in households with smart meters – and millions say theirs isn’t working

Households may be less enthusiastic about smart meters as the latest government figures show a further drop in the number of installations.

Smart meters can communicate with energy companies in real time. This means that customers do not have to manually submit their meter readings and may have access to exclusive energy rates.

They also show real-time energy usage and costs, which some customers find useful if they want to reduce their energy bills.

The latest government figures show that only 692,000 smart meters were installed in the second quarter of 2024. That is 11 percent less than in the previous three months and 15 percent less than in the same quarter of 2023.

There are now 30.6 million smart meters in UK homes, with a further 3.4 million smart meters in ‘traditional mode’.

This means that they are not working in smart mode, either because they are not working or because a household has switched to an energy company that does not support them.

Citizens Advice reacted strongly to this figure and called for new meters to be installed for those who want them.

Gillian Cooper, energy director at the charity Citizens Advice, said: ‘Today’s figures show once again that millions of households are missing out on the benefits of their smart meters because they simply don’t work properly.

‘Despite a small improvement, there is still a long way to go and the rollout of new meters is proceeding more slowly.

‘Earlier this year we discovered that one in five households with smart meters regularly has to manually submit meter readings and that almost a third had problems with the display in the home.’

Not all energy customers are enthusiastic about a smart meter. Many customers report that the devices do not work properly or that the meter readings are incorrect.

Others object to their energy company receiving real-time data on their electricity consumption, which could indicate when they are away from home, for example.

By the end of June 2024, 57 percent of all household meters were smart meters operating in smart mode.

Energy companies are requiring households to have smart meters installed to meet the government’s target of having smart meters installed in 80 percent of homes by the end of 2025.

The number of new smart meters installed has declined overall since its peak in 2017.

Last summer, energy suppliers said they had already picked up the “low-hanging fruit” of households wanting smart meters, according to a report from the National Audit Office.

Last year, regulator Ofgem fined six of the UK’s largest energy companies £10.8 million for failing to meet smart meter installation targets.

Smart meters can only be installed if households agree, unless an old traditional meter has reached the end of its life and an energy company no longer has replacement meters.