Energy suppliers British Gas, OVO, Bulb, E.ON, Scottish Power and SSE have been ordered to pay a combined £10.8 million after missing the smart meter installation target in 2022.
The companies have agreed to pay the total amount after collectively culminating in a shortfall in installations of 1,026,628 smart meters by the required deadline. The £10.8 million will be paid into Ofgem’s Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Fund (EIVRF).
The missed installation target is in direct violation of the government’s Smart Meter Targets Framework which introduced an annual target for smart meter installations. This was to ensure the government’s target of having a smart meter in 80% of English, Scottish and Welsh homes by the end of 2025, remained achieveable.
For this, the government calculated a formula for each energy retailers’ annual smart meter target, based on the number of customers they have. This meant each suppliers target was different.
A breakdown of the costs for each supplier can be found below:
| Supplier | Total voluntary redress payments made into EIVRF |
|---|---|
| British Gas | £3.37 million |
| OVO | £2.39 million |
| Bulb | £1.83 million |
| E.ON | £1.72 million |
| Scottish Power | £1.24 million |
| SSE | £252,000 |
| Total | £10.8 million |
As a result of suppliers agreeing to make voluntary payments by way of Alternative Action, Ofgem decided not to conduct a full investigation into the reasons for the shortfall against the targets for 2022.
Despite these shortcomings, it is worth noting that as of June 2023, over 33 million smart and advanced meters have been installed in homes and small businesses across Great Britain, which represents 58% of all meters in the UK.
Cathryn Scott, director of Enforcement and Emerging Issues, said: “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.”
