We explore this in this article to help meet stringent environmental impact requirements the government has dictated that gas and electricity suppliers must provide and fit smart meters for everyone in britain by 2020.
Smart meters switching energy supplier.
If you have a smart meter and want to switch energy supplier is this possible and what are the implications.
Well soon all suppliers will have to stop installing them the deadline has already passed for the majority of energy suppliers but it comes into full effect on the 15th march 2019.
Energy companies are currently rolling out first generation smart meters smets1 or the newer second generation smart meters smets2.
You can still switch if you.
However if the new supplier cannot operate your meter in smart mode you may need to temporarily take manual meter readings and energy suppliers must inform you of this risk.
At the time of writing not every supplier is offering smart meters so if having one is a must do some detective work to find a supplier who uses them.
First generation smart meters can stop working or turn dumb when you switch energy supplier.
If you have a first generation smart meter when you switch supplier your meter will continue to accurately record gas or electricity consumption as before.
In some cases energy providers are still installing smets1 meters where certain geographical locations or property types do not yet support the upgraded models.
Whether you have a smart electricity or gas meter or both you can still transfer to a new energy company if you want.
Energy supplier smart meter rollout.
Energy suppliers began installing smart meters over the last few years with the goal of upgrading all uk households by 2024.
If you have an older first generation smart meter they can temporarily lose some of their functionality following a switch but this just means you may have to read the meters yourself for a little while.
The first generation of smart meters called smets1 that have been installed to date can temporarily lose smart functionality when they switch energy supplier.
This means that any smart meter installed after this date will have to be a smets2 meter compatible with any supplier via the national network.
This is because first generation meters are not yet connected to the central wireless network for smart meters which allows companies to receive data from all smart meters.
If you re wondering can i switch suppliers with a smart meter the answer s yes.
