With 2020 deadline looming, government unveils new proposals to promote benefits of smart meters to small businesses
In a bid to get its flagship smart meter rollout back on track the government last week unveiled new proposals to promote the technology to small businesses and other non-domestic sites.
By the end of 2020 the government has promised to offer every home and business in the UK a smart meter, a project set to cost over £11bn in total.
But so far only around 12 million smart meters have been installed, leaving a further 39 million to be fitted before the end of next year – a challenge the National Audit Office has said will prove almost impossible for the government to meet.
One of the challenges facing the rollout is convincing small companies of their benefits. According to the government many small businesses, such as cafes, small shops, and industrial units, see energy as a background running cost and therefore do not pay it much attention. Only around a quarter of businesses have therefore taken up the offer of a smart meter to date, leaving more than two million more yet to be upgraded.
Meanwhile, a 2018 survey by Smart Energy GB, the body in charge of the campaign to promote smart meters, revealed 70 per cent of non-home based microbusinesses are unaware smart meters can be deployed for business use.
In a bid to boost take-up, the government has drafted a plan – now out for consultation – that would see Smart Energy GB do more to reach the UK’s small business community, including affording the body more flexibility to launch communications campaigns targeting small firms.
The government is also considering removing energy suppliers’ right to charge for consumption data, in a bid to encourage more small and micro-businesses to engage with their energy use data and consider the benefits of smart meters.
“We are of the view that without intervention, this low awareness is unlikely to improve before the end of the rollout, which would be detrimental to take-up and thus the realisation of benefits,” the government said.
