By the end of 2021, there were 27.8 million smart and advanced meters in homes and small businesses in Great Britain.
This is according to new figures from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Of the 27.8 million installed, 15.3 million are SMETS1, 11.1 million are SMETS2 and 1.3 million are advanced.
In total, smart and advanced meters represent 50% of all meters in GB, a 7 percentage point increase from the end of 2020.
Indeed, 3.8 million meters were installed in 2021, with most installed by large suppliers and only 6% installed by small suppliers.
However, small suppliers had a challenging year, with 27 suppliers shuttering while Bulb entered special measures as a result of the high power prices.
Installations of meters increased 19% compared to 2020, although they remained lower than pre-COVID-19 levels. The rollout of smart meters was paused in the first lockdown in 2020, leading to domestic installations falling 15% in Q1 2020 compared with Q1 2019. Smart meter installations then started up again in June 2020.
Recent figures from ElectraLink, meanwhile, found that installations of smart meters in Britain jumped 21% in 2021, with 2.4 million smart meters installed across the year.