Smart meter network more than doubles in 12 months

The number of smart meters connected to the Data Communications Company’s (DCC) network more than doubled in the last regulatory year, the company has revealed.

In its annual report DCC said it had installed 6.7 million devices between April 2020 and March 2021, despite a major slowdown of installations due to the pandemic.

In April 2020 4.2 million SMETS2 and 126,000 SMETS1 devices were connected. One year later the number increased to 7.17 million SMETS2 and 3.87 million SMETS1, more than doubling the network.

December was the best month overall for installations, with 960,000 devices installed.

DCC said daily installation rates improved to virtually pre-pandemic levels by the beginning of the second lockdown, reaching almost 20,000 per working day.

Elsewhere the company said there has been significant progress in returning smart functionality to dormant first-generation SMETS1 meters, almost 4 million of these were migrated onto the network.

Network coverage expanded further over the year, and now reaches 99.3 per cent of premises in Britain.

According to the latest available figures there are 13.5 million devices are connected to the network and DCC estimates they have saved the country almost 400,000 tonnes of CO2 in the past year.

Additionally the DCC published its business and development plan which outlines its aims to complete the migration of first-generation meters by the end of 2022, as well as deliver the Central Switching Service which was originally due to start this year but faced delays due to the pandemic.

Richard McCarthy, DCC chairman, said: “This has been a strong performance by the DCC during the 2020/21 regulatory year.

“I am most proud of the progress we’ve made in facilitating the over-the-air migration of the country’s first generation of smart meters onto our network.

“This has been a significantly challenging and highly technical undertaking, with thousands of device and software combinations. It represents one of the largest ever IT migrations in a live environment.”

DCC chief executive Angus Flett said: “At the DCC we continue to focus on our core priority, which is to support the energy industry as it completes its digitisation by rolling out smart meters across Britain.

“The DCC and its partners have performed well in a year disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic and it’s great to see momentum building again behind this national infrastructure programme.

“Our drive for the coming period will be to make further improvements for energy consumers by supporting the migration of the remaining first-generation smart meters onto our network, and to deliver a new, faster and more reliable switching service.”