Recommendation 23

The smart meter rollout has been sluggish, unreliable and has failed to achieve adequate coverage across Great Britain. Poor levels of reliability mean that many consumers are unable to benefit from more accurate billing, which has increased the occurrence of billing issues. It also limits access to flexible tariffs and the ability to sell energy back to the grid. Targets for suppliers have focused too much on the rollout of new smart meters, rather than the performance of existing ones. (Conclusion, Paragraph 84) 47