Get Smarter: Ensuring people benefit from Smart Meters
Get Smarter: Ensuring people benefit from Smart Meters 1.91 MB
Despite a slower than planned rollout, more than half of all households in Great Britain now have a smart meter, enabling a range of benefits, some of which should be delivered immediately, like an end to estimated bills and new ways for prepayment consumers to top up. Other benefits require people to take action - over 80% of direct consumer financial benefits from smart metering will be achieved by changing behaviour based on engaging with information from the meter.
Most people with smart meters are enjoying these benefits. Almost 7 in 10 people (68%) who have smart meters are happy with them, and the proportion of people with a smart meter who are using smart-enabled products and services has increased since 2018.
Unfortunately, some aspects of the consumer experience of smart meters have worsened. Our research shows that 20% of people with a smart meter reported having to regularly give manual meter readings to their supplier, and more reported having to give them occasionally. The proportion of consumers saying they were unhappy with their smart meter installation has doubled since 2018.
While providing manual meter readings may still be necessary on some rare occasions, these numbers reflect wider problems with some smart meters not communicating wirelessly or energy suppliers not making full use of smart functionality. By the end of 2023 over 11% of meters were reported as not working in ‘smart mode’, which itself represents just a subset of the problems consumers can encounter with smart meters.
When meters don’t work properly it can put consumers at risk of receiving estimated or catch up bills, often without warning. Unexpected bills impact consumers’ ability to budget and can cause people to fall into debt. Meters not working properly can also prevent people from using smart energy services like Time of Use and export tariffs, which are needed to make the most efficient use of low carbon technologies like electric vehicles and solar panels.
The people we help with smart meter problems at Citizens Advice often say these have not been addressed promptly by suppliers, causing distrust and disengagement. Current consumer protections aren’t working effectively to deliver a good smart meter experience or a timely fix if things go wrong.
As such we are calling for:
New ‘Guaranteed Standards’ that require suppliers to install and operate meters properly, investigate and address problems in a timely way, and provide compensation when this doesn’t happen
A reduction in the amount of time consumers with smart meters can be ‘backbilled’ from 12 to 6 months, to protect them from shock bills if things go wrong
New voluntary protections for all consumers with smart meters to be able to get In Home Displays fixed or replaced be closely monitored to ensure all suppliers are addressing IHD issues promptly
A stronger regulatory framework that eliminates the "accountability gap" between energy suppliers and the DCC, to ensure prompt action to get smart equipment working no matter the responsible party