British Gas, Ovo, Bulb, E.ON, Scottish Power and SSE are to pay a total of £10.8 million to Ofgem’s Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Fund after in a shortfall to install a total of 1,026,628 smart meters by the end of 2022.
After the suppliers agreed to make the voluntary payments by way of Alternative Action, Ofgem decided not to conduct a full investigation into the reasons for the shortfall against the targets.
In addition, Scottish Power has agreed to pay £440,000 into the EIVRF in relation to its 2019 Annual Milestones smart metering obligations.
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.”
The Government introduced a four-year Smart Meter Targets Framework on 1 January 2022 with annual targets for suppliers.
The Alternative Action amount has been set consistently across the six suppliers, based on the number of missed smart meter installations during 2022, with an allowance made for the Supplier of Last Resort consumers taken on in late 2021.
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 of June 2023, 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.
I had a second generation meter fitted under the auspices of OVO in 2020 which never fully worked. I was abandoned to the care of B Gas after the closure of Social Energy in 2021. I have informed and reminded them of the malfunctioning smart meter on a number of occasions but they are clearly unable to respond or resolve the problem. So the problem is not just about these companies not fitting meters. It is about the widespread reality that many of the ones that have been supplied just do not work. So the fine should be bigger still
The mad complexity of the electricity supply in UK.
Fines ultimately come from the consumer .
Suppliers who have only a temporary relationship with the property (& consumer!) mandated to cajole consumers into something many are reluctant to install.
Introduce a new standard partway thru national rollout making work so far obsolete
Different meter technologies in North & South of country to ensure extra cost
Hard to see how the program could have been made any more complex
And don’t get me started on why are we wasting billions on’Smart’ gas meters when we going to discontinue domestic gas in the near future.