Over three million faulty smart metres were put in residences across the United Kingdom as part of a bungled roll-out.
According to the National Audit Office (NAO), nearly one in every ten smart energy metres put in UK homes is not functioning properly, and more than one in every three homeowners has reported problems.
The project, which was planned to put a smart metre in every home by 2020, is now anticipated to cost more than £13.5 billion.
Smart metres are intended to replace standard gas and electric metres by transmitting automatic measurements to energy providers.
The display screen also provides homeowners with real-time information on how much power they are using.
The government is already falling short of its current 2025 goal of installing smart metres in 80% of homes.
According to experts, the deployment of smart metres is critical to reducing energy use and meeting the government’s 2050 net zero aim.
Only 57% of houses had a metre placed by March of this year, according to a survey by the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero.
According to the research, over 1,000 smart metre installers have departed or retired since March 2020, while energy suppliers have been discouraged from training new installations since intense competition has resulted in their being promptly snatched up by rivals.
Many of the three million faulty smart metres are thought to be “dumb” first-generation versions that stopped working when consumers switched to alternative suppliers.