Smart Meter Rollout: Intelligent Solutions For Legacy Challenges

Smart meters help homes and businesses track their usage and modify behaviours to cut consumption and costs. They are an integral part of the UK’s net zero energy transition and the foundation of digitised water and power systems.

However, the beleaguered rollout of smart gas and electricity meters provides some important lessons on how suppliers can better engage with customers and encourage them to sign up, as well as organise installations without alienating them. Over a decade into the rollout and around half of homes still don’t have a device – just over 26 million domestic smart meters have been installed, out of a total 53 million.

A lack of consumer interest and logistical issues encountered by suppliers have proved significant obstacles to uptake, forcing the government to shift its deadline for nationwide coverage, from 2020 to 2024, and in the wake of the pandemic, again to 2025. Whether the latest deadline can be met is open to question given that many of the same challenges remain.