Ovo Energy pays £1.2m fine as SSE unit misses smart meter target

Gas and electricity supplier Ovo Energy has paid a voluntary £1.2m fine as its recently-acquired SSE Energy Services unit failed to hit smart meter installation targets last year.

Ovo was fined £8.9m earlier this year for overcharging customers and sending out inaccurate statements to 500,000 customers. It insisted that the smart meter breach pre-dated its acquisition of the SSE business for £500m in January.

Industry regulator Ofgem would have launched a punitive enforcement action had Ovo not paid the fine.

Under their licence terms, energy suppliers have agreed to "take all reasonable steps" to supply smart meters to all homes and small businesses by the middle of 2021.

In June, the government let companies off 2020's smart meter targets due to Covid-19, giving companies until the end of June next year to hit them and the target of 100% coverage was extended to 2025.

"Since Ovo's acquisition of SSE Energy Services, we have significantly improved our smart meter rollout programme to ensure that we can install smart meters in more homes across the UK," the company said in a statement.