Skip to navigation Skip to content Skip to footer

We use cookies to improve your experience of our website. You can find out more or opt-out from some cookies.

Menu

Smart meter stats show suppliers will need to install at an “increasingly unrealistic pace”, says Citizens Advice

30 August 2018

Citizens Advice has responded to the latest Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) quarterly smart meter statistics.

Gillian Guy, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, said:

“Today’s figures show that in order to meet the 2020 deadline suppliers will have to install smart meters at an increasingly unrealistic pace. We are concerned that the compressed timeline could lead to a poor customer experience, which risks undermining people’s faith in what is an important technology”.

“We want smart technology to work for consumers. Extending the deadline to 2023 will allow more time for problems that consumers are already experiencing to be fixed. This would allow suppliers to rollout the remaining meters at a pace that delivers the best possible consumer experience”.

Background

Recent analysis by energy consultancy Cornwall Insight highlights how the rate of smart meter installations has never been high enough to meet the 2020 rollout deadline. But extending the deadline to 2023 could make significant difference.

Notes to editors

  1. Citizens Advice is made up of a network of local Citizens Advice in England and Wales, all of which are independent charities, the Citizens Advice consumer service and the national charity Citizens Advice.

  2. Together we help people resolve their money, legal and other problems by providing information and advice and by influencing policymakers.

  3. Citizens Advice is the statutory consumer advocate for energy and postal markets. We provide supplier performance information to consumers and policy analysis to decision makers

  4. The Citizens Advice Witness Service provides free and independent support for both prosecution and defence witnesses in every criminal court in England and Wales.

  5. Citizens Advice also offers Pension Wise appointments at 500 locations across England and Wales.

  6. The advice provided by the Citizens Advice service is free, independent, confidential and impartial, and available to everyone regardless of race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion, age or nationality.

  7. To get advice online or find your local Citizens Advice in England and Wales, visit citizensadvice.org.uk

  8. You can get consumer advice from the Citizens Advice consumer service on 03454 04 05 06 or 03454 04 05 05 for Welsh language speakers.