EON is one of the major energy suppliers, but it is also one of the first to be hit with a major fine. It was recently fined for not installing smart meters for many of its business customers. This is a stiff penalty and shows that energy suppliers are going to be held to high standards when it comes to the use of smart meters.
A slow, poorly managed smart meter rollout
The reason that EON was hit with such a stiff penalty and high fine was due to the vast amount of customers that it did not make smart meters accessible to. It was determined that EON did not make smart meters available for over two thirds of their business customers. These smart meters are known as advanced meters and regulations were put in place that stipulated these smart meters need to be made available to all business customers no later than April of 2014. This deadline was not met by EON and they have been fined as a result of not adhering to this regulation. Even if not all of the business customers for EON were going to choose smart meters, they still needed to be available as an option.
Other Sanctions
Even though EON has already been fined 7m for their failure to make smart meters available to business customers, they are not out of the woods yet. They are still under a timeline to correct this issue. This means that if they fail to meet the new deadline that has been put in place, they could be fined again. The amount of the fine will be comparable to the one that they have just been hit with, so their costs could rise significantly. It is therefore in their best interests to deploy a smooth smart meter roll out.
Other Energy Providers
This news regarding the penalty faced by EON has put other energy providers on high alert. Other providers like British Gas and Npower are also currently being investigated. This means that they have not been assessed fines yet, but they could be in the near future. The energy industry was making it a priority to transition over to the use of smart meters within 5 years, but none of the large energy providers have made this possible. This means that they are all are coming under fire and are currently being investigated. EON was the first to be fined, but they are more than likely not going to be the last. Many of the other top energy providers have also not made smart meters accessible to all business customers.