Six GB suppliers fined £10.8m for missing smart meter installation targets

The six suppliers missed the installation targets for 2022 by a total of almost 1.03 million smart meters.

The six suppliers are British Gas, OVO, Bulb, E.ON, Scottish Power and SSE and they will pay the combined total of £10.8 million (US$13.2 million) to Ofgem’s Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Fund, which is used primarily to support vulnerable consumers.

With this agreement by the suppliers, Ofgem also has decided not to conduct a full investigation into the reasons for the shortfall against the targets for 2022.

While a number of suppliers provided information on the mitigating factors that impacted their ability to meet their annual targets, Ofgem considered the impact of some of these is reflected in the levels of the payments agreed with the six suppliers, according to a statement.

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“The installation of smart meters is a vital step in the modernisation of our energy system and the path to net zero by 2050. Smart meters give customers better information about their energy usage helping them budget and control their costs,” commented Cathryn Scott, Director of Enforcement and Emerging Issues at Ofgem.

The numbers of smart meters below the targets have not been specified for the individual suppliers but presumably are reflected in the levels of the payments, which are:

• British Gas – £3.37 million (US$4.12 million)
• OVO – £2.39 million (US$2.92 million)
• Bulb – £1.83 million (US$2.24 million)
• E.ON – £1.72 million (US$2.10)
• Scottish Power – £1.24 million (US$1.52 million)
• SSE – £252,000 (US$308,000)

In addition, Scottish Power has agreed to pay a further £440,000 (US$538,000) into the redress fund in relation to its 2019 milestone smart metering obligations.

Between 2016 and 2019, the large energy suppliers with more than 250,000 customers had to set annual targets, or ‘milestones’, for the proportion of their customers that would have a smart meter by the end of each year.

The new four-year smart meter framework was introduced in 1 January 2022, with minimum annual installation targets set for the suppliers, with ongoing monitoring by Ofgem.

The latest quarterly update on the smart meter rollout indicates that at the end of June 2023 there were 33.08 million smart and advanced meters in homes and small businesses in Britain, corresponding to 58% penetration.

Of these 30.3 were operating in smart mode.