Britain’s smart meter rollout lagging shows study

Britain’s smart meter rollout is lagging those of its European counterparts, new analysis from LCP Delta has indicated.

The analysis indicates that while progress has been made in the installation of electricity smart meters in domestic properties in GB, compared to some other European countries, there is still a long way to go to achieve 100% uptake.

LCP Delta cites government figures showing that there have been 18.8 million cumulative installations of smart meters so far in Great Britain, amounting to 64% of homes and indicating that 36% are still without electricity smart meters.

In comparison in France 37.9 million meters have been installed to achieve 93% coverage, while the 27.9 million smart meters in Spain provide full coverage.

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In Italy, the first generation rollout achieved full coverage with 36.2 million smart meters and the second generation rollout at 30.2 million smart meters is 82% complete.

A notable outlier is Germany, with its rollout to date only about 1% completed.

The analysis also investigates customer engagement as measured by the number of homes registered with their suppliers’ mobile apps as a tool to manage energy use. Numbers range from 12% in Italy to 31% in Spain and GB on 20% comparing well and underscoring the importance of customer engagement there.

“Our analysis indicates that we need both a full smart meter roll-out as well as engaged customers. They are not mutually exclusive,” says David Trevithick, head of Digital at LCP Delta.

“The risk of mandates is unengaged customers, while the risk of a customer opt-in approach is that the full smart meter rollout takes another decade. The challenge for policymakers is to engage the remaining customer base to achieve a full roll-out more quickly than a natural meter replacement cycle.”

In light of the findings LCP Delta recommends that Smart Energy GB, the government backed campaign organisation, should raise awareness and use targeted communications that outline the value add and clearly articulate the benefits of smart meters to reach hard to engage consumers.

Other recommendations are for energy retailers to offer attractive smart meter-enabled propositions to consumers that give them more control and lower energy bills and for government to hold suppliers to account and show commitment to the smart meter rollout, giving confidence to metering companies to invest in the market.

Energy regulators also must address data privacy concerns and reassure consumers that the UK has a robust smart meter infrastructure in place that provides a high level of resilience and protection.