The Data Communications Company (DCC), the body tasked with maintaining the UK’s smart meter data network, has confirmed a major smart meter milestone has been surpassed.
Yesterday the DCC announced that more than half a million SMETS2 smart meters have been installed and connected to its data network after the 500,000th was installed last Friday by E.On in Leighton Buzzard.
But more pertinently for the smart meter roll-out, the DCC said that there had been “significant process” with the SMETS2 roll-out, with installs picking up to a rate of more than 7,000 each day.
That installation rate is representative of a six-fold interest since last June, when around 1,000 SMETS2 meters were being installed each day, and the DCC expects this to continue to increase over the course of the year.
And the industry will need to fall in line with the DCC’s expectations, as smart meter installations are still significantly behind the pace required to stand any chance of energy suppliers meeting the government’s 2020 deadline.
At a select committee hearing in January, BEIS’ senior reporting officer for smart metering Daron Walker said that installs – including both SMETS2 and legacy SMETS1 meters – would have to double from between 4 – 5 million per year at present to 8 or 9 million per year to even hit 75% of the country’s overall target.
The government is also facing controversy over the SMETS2 rollout over an emerging trend for the more advanced meters to be installed more prolifically in the south of the country.
The select committee heard that just of 250,000 SMETS2 meters installed at that time, just 10,000 of them had been installed under DCC North’s jurisdiction.
