Energy suppliers are set to face "ambitious" new annual targets for installing smart meters from July next year, as part of government plans announced today aimed at accelerating the rollout across homes and businesses as coronavirus lockdown measures are lifted.

The new plan comes after non-emergency smart meter installations were halted by energy suppliers in March due to public health concerns, serving to slow the rollout and put the UK further behind schedule in trying to meet national installation targets that suppliers were already set to miss.

In view of the disruption wrought by the Covid-19 crisis, the government today said it would grant energy suppliers an extra six months to meet their installation targets for 2020, in order to help make up for the reduced contact engineers have had with customers since March.

But, in order to accelerate the rollout thereafter, new secondary legislation is being laid today aimed at boosting installation rates. A consultation is expected to launch shortly on government plans to set "strict future annual targets that would result in fines if missed".

"Ambitious targets for individual suppliers will be agreed later this year following consultation, and will be implemented from July next year," according to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Advocates of smart meters see them as crucial for boosting public awareness of energy use and automating billing processes. The technology is credited with helping to drive down emissions and bills while enabling a new wave of smart home and grid technologies.

The government estimates the nationwide smart meter rollout could knock up to £16bn a year off the costs of reaching the UK's 2050 net zero emissions target, in addition to collectively saving businesses which install smart meters around £1.5bn a year on their bills.

It also claims smart meters could save consumers up to £250 on their energy bills, while cutting UK carbon emissions by 45 million tonnes, or the equivalent to taking 26 million cars off the road for a year.

But while the government had aimed to offer every UK home and business a device by 2020, industry insiders had already been warning the target was likely to be missed well before the lockdown came into effect.

With the UK still far short of the previous 2020 goal, the government had unveiled several new smart meter measures last summer, including a diluted target for 85 per cent of homes and businesses to have a device installed by 2024.

Installation rates had looked to be increasing, with around 19,000 being installed across the UK each day before lockdown was announced. Today, the government confirmed 21.5 million smart meters have now been installed across homes and businesses to date.

"Smart meters are playing an important role in helping the UK deliver a cleaner and more efficient energy system, with the added benefit of also saving tens of billions of pounds in the process," said Minister for Climate Change, Lord Callanan. "By allowing households to conveniently track their energy use, and prepayment customers to more easily top-up credit, we are working with industry to safely install even more across the country in a way that keeps consumers and suppliers safe."