The UK’s smart meter network has doubled in the past 12 months, and there will be 6.7 million smart meters connected to the data communications company (DCC) network in 2020/21.
Although the first COVID-19 lockdown caused an outage—installation was suspended for three months starting in March—but by the start of the second lockdown, the daily install rate had actually returned to pre-pandemic levels. This means that nearly 20,000 meters are installed every working day.
This speed enabled E.On Energy to install the 10 millionth smart meter in Dordington, Cambridgeshire, England at 10:47 am on February 1, 2021.
In addition to the overall expansion of the smart meter network, DCC also pointed out that nearly 4 million first-generation meters (SMETS1) have been migrated to the network to return smart functions to these households. It is important to be able to switch energy suppliers.
“At DCC, we continue to focus on our core priority, which is to support the energy industry to complete its digitization by launching smart meters in the UK,” said CEO Angus Flett.
“During the year affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, DCC and its partners have performed well, and it is great to see the momentum behind this national infrastructure plan increase again.”
DCC’s annual report and accounts show that the company’s network coverage has also expanded in the last regulatory year, covering 99.3% of sites in the UK.
In addition to releasing this report, it also released its business and development plan (2021/22 – 2025/26), which outlines the next steps to improve the service. This includes completing the migration of SMETS1 by the end of 2022, providing new centralized switching services, and starting the purchase of a 4G communications hub, which will enable DCC to perform future verification of its network.
“This is DCC’s strong performance in the 2020/21 regulatory year,” said DCC Chairman Richard McCarthy.
“What I am most proud of is the progress we have made in facilitating the wireless migration of the country’s first generation of smart meters to our network. This is a very challenging and technically content task involving thousands of devices and The software portfolio. It represents one of the largest IT migrations in a real-time environment.”
After the end of the last regulatory year in March, DCC also began to explore opening up its network to support electric vehicle charging in a new partnership with Toshiba.
Post time: Aug-26-2021