Energy firms fined £10.8m for missing smart meter targets

Energy suppliers including British Gas and Ovo have been fined nearly £11m for failing to meet smart meter installation targets.

The firms all missed their targets for 2022, meaning a total of 1.03m smart meters were not installed by the required deadlines.

As a result, British Gas - which is owned by Centrica - has been fined £3.37m by regulator Ofgem, while Ovo has been hit with a £2.39m penalty.

Also fined were Bulb - which was taken over by Octopus after it went into administration in 2021 - E.ON, Scottish Power and SSE.

Scottish Power also agreed to pay a further £440,000 in relation to its 2019 smart metering obligations.

A total of £10.8m will be paid into Ofgem’s Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Fund, which supports vulnerable consumers.

Cathryn Scott, director of enforcement and emerging issues at Ofgem, 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 the four-year Smart Meter Targets Framework in January 2022, which is intended to bolster the rollout of smart meters by setting annual targets.

As of June 2023, around 33m smart meters have been installed, accounting for around 58% of all meters in the UK.