The nationwide roll out of smart meters will take place between 2013 and 2020.

In December 2009 the Government completed an initial consultation and announced its intention for every household to be fitted with a smart meter by 2020. The new meters will help consumers develop a closer and more intelligent relationship with their energy, something that is essential to achieving a 100% renewable future.

We’re involved with government and the industry to develop the details of the roll out. It will be a huge change, affecting around 30 million properties.

The Government has decided that the UK will develop a central communication infrastructure that all suppliers will use to ensure that smart meters can be accessed and communicated with in the same way, using the same technology. This means when new customers join Good Energy we'll be able to read their smart meter remotely, even if it was installed by a different energy supplier.

Although this decision is an important milestone, there is still significant cross-industry and government planning to be done, and the Government has indicated that the installation of smart meters into homes will not start until 2013. We're closely involved with Ofgem and DECC in planning the installation of smart meters, and once the specification has been finalised we'll be keen to install them in our customers' homes as soon as possible.

Some suppliers have already started to provide their customers with the new meters, which they are calling ‘smart’. While we too are committed to installing smart meters for all of our customers, we have chosen to wait until a final government decision is made on their design and how the infrastructure will work.