Smart meter rollout underway

By the end of 2020, every home across England, Scotland and Wales will be offered a new smart meter by their energy supplier.

The meters will a vital role in the government’s strategy to make the UK greener and more energy efficient and safeguarding its energy supply.

Smart meters will replace traditional meters and will offer a range of intelligent functions that will enable consumers to measure their gas and electricity consumption and securely send the information wirelessly to the household’s energy supplier and the consumer’s handheld smart meter display.

This next generation of meters will ensure accurate bills and mean an end to manual readings and estimated bills.

The smart meter will display almost real time information on a household’s energy use, showing the cost of consumption in pounds and pence, giving consumers an understanding of what energy is being used and the spent. This will allow householders to confidently budget for their energy cost.

The meters can be used for either prepay or credit payment methods, giving more flexibility and choice in choosing payment for energy bills.

Another benefit of the meters is that comparing energy tariffs will be much simpler, making the process of switching between energy providers easier and much quicker.

It is hoped that in the future, smart meters will be used in conjunction with smarter energy grids to help energy suppliers to be able to plan the supply and demand of gas and electricity. This will benefit consumers by way of cheaper tariffs at off-peak times.

Almost two million smart meters have already been installed across Great Britain and by 2020; around 50 million smart meters will be fitted in over 26 million households.

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