Suppliers installed 760,000 domestic smart meters in Q1 2021, taking the number of smart and advanced meters in homes and small businesses to 24.2 million.
Of these, 19.8 million are in smart mode or are advanced meters, with 44% of all meters now being smart or advanced, an increase of five percentage points on this time last year.
This is according to new statistics released by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which show that as of the end of March, there were a total of 22 million gas meters and 26.4 million electricity meters operated by large energy suppliers in domestic properties across Great Britain.
Looking at Q1 2021 specifically, the domestic installation figures represent a drop of 213,900 (22%) compared to Q4 2020, while 25,200 non-domestic smart/advanced meters were installed, a drop of 3,100 (11%).
2020 was a turbulent year for smart meter installations, dropping by 27% in March according to data from Electralink compared to February as they were paused as a result of COVID-19 government guidelines. They restarted again in June following a 15% drop in Q1 2019.
Across the year, there was a 27% reduction in installations compared with 2019, with only 1.997 million recorded by ElectraLink.
In March 2021, the smart meter rollout hit a new milestone, with 15 million electricity smart meters installed since the programme began in 2012.
