Claire Perry: 2,000 SMETS2 meters are now live

More than 2,000 second generation smart meters are live, clean growth minister Claire Perry has revealed.

In a response to a written question tabled by backbench Labour MP Stephen McCabe about how many SMETS2 gas meters have been installed and connected to the Data and Communication Company’s (DCC) system, Perry replied that the figure is 1,000.

The total number of working gas and electricity SMETS2 meters, which are designed to be fully inter-operable by any supplier over the DCC system, is 2,000, she added.

In an answer to a separate question, Perry told McCabe that enrolment and adoption of the first cohort of the less sophisticated SMETS1 meters into the DCC system will go live “at the end of the year”.

This will see the DCC link its systems to at least two companies already providing large scale SMETS1 services to energy suppliers.

She added that work to design, build and test a service to enrol and adopt SMETS1 meters continues and that the government will be consulting on enrolment of the remaining cohorts “later this summer”.

According to Perry, around 637,000 SMETS1 devices are currently operating in traditional or “dumb” mode. This is because they belong to customers who have switched to a supplier without data communication arrangements so that they can continue working in “smart” mode.

Around 11 million SMETS1 are working in smart mode as intended, she added.

Enrolment onto the DCC system is designed to ensure that all customers with SMETS1 meters are able to continue using them in “smart” mode if they switch suppliers.

Perry’s boss, business and energy secretary of state Greg Clark pledged in the House of Commons last November that arrangements would be in place for the SMETS1 devices to be fully inter-operable by the end of this year.

Perry said that while some leading energy suppliers have started rolling out SMETS2 meters to their customers, others are still working with the DCC to finish testing the devices before doing so.

She added that the government is consulting on a final adjustment to the deadline for stopping the installation of SMETS1 meters in order to give suppliers more leeway before commencing the SMETS2 rollout.

But the minister denied that SMETS2 devices would take longer to install than SMETS1s.

“Feedback from energy suppliers based on their SMETS2 installations does not indicate that installation times will be materially different to SMETS1 installation times once installer experience of second generation metering matures,” she said.