Control over Great Britain\u2019s 39m smart meters has passed to a non-profit startup after its former owner presided over more than a decade of spiralling costs and delays in the troubled network.<\/p>\n
The company owned by crisis-hit outsourcing firm Capita has promised a \u201cseamless transition\u201d to its not-for-profit successor, which will take over running the data network connecting the smart meters from this week.<\/p>\n
The handover marks the end of a 13-year licence granted to Smart DCC, a subsidiary of Capita, to set up the country\u2019s first smart meter data network, a process that has been dogged by costly delays while millions of households faced billing issues<\/a>.<\/p>\n Industry sources said Capita\u2019s subsidiary was effectively blocked from tendering for a new licence to manage the smart meter network after Whitehall officials decided to replace the commercial framework established in 2013 with a not-for-profit public-interest model governed by an independent board.<\/p>\n Instead, the network underpinning Britain\u2019s smart meters will become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Smart Energy<\/a> Code Company (SECCo) with \u201ca greater focus on cost, transparency and customer and consumer needs\u201d, the new operator said.<\/p>\n Its board will include veteran energy and telecoms industry executives as well as Dame Gillian Guy, the former chief executive of Citizens Advice, which claimed in 2024 that households had been \u201clet down\u201d by the rollout<\/a> because almost a third of smart meters weren\u2019t working properly.<\/p>\n Ministers had initially hoped that all households would have a smart meter before 2020 to help modernise Britain\u2019s outdated energy system and make better use of renewable energy and innovative data-led energy tariffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n