ScottishPower improves smart meter installation service with Energy Saving Trust energy efficiency advice tool
ScottishPower serves around five million households and businesses across Great Britain. Energy Saving Trust have created a tool to help them support their customers with energy efficiency advice and measure the impact of its smart meter installation service.
Background
As part of the Iberdrola group, a global energy company and world leader in wind energy, ScottishPower aims to build a clean, green and sustainable future. It’s the first energy company in Great Britain to generate 100% green electricity, and has committed to investing over £1.4billion in renewable electricity in Great Britain every year for the next five years.
In line with its commitments and government obligations, ScottishPower installs smart meters and in-home display units in customers’ homes. This lets customers track their energy usage and can help them to save money on their energy bills.
The supplier also offers energy efficiency advice to customers, helping them to make changes to save money and reduce their environmental impact.
The challenge
To support its 2050 net zero target, the UK Government created a smart meter rollout policy framework. The policy sets targets for energy suppliers in Great Britain to install a certain number of smart meters in customers’ properties each year until 2025. Compliance with the targets is monitored by Ofgem, the UK energy regulator.
The 2023 smart meter installation target for ScottishPower was 502,439 (280,147 electricity and 222,292 gas).
Energy suppliers must also comply with requirements set out in the Retail Energy Code (REC) relating to installing smart meters. These include offering customers a range of measures, such as energy efficiency advice, as part of the smart meter installation process. This helps customers to get the full benefit from their smart meter.
As a supplier in Great Britain, ScottishPower needs to reach both its annual installation targets and REC requirements, while also meeting its own focus of helping customers. ScottishPower wanted to find a solution to do this in a measurable way.
The solution
ScottishPower approached Energy Saving Trust to improve its smart meter installation service. In collaboration they created an energy efficiency advice tool for installers approved by ScottishPower to use on site when installing customers’ smart meters.
The tool, in the form of an app, allows ScottishPower to:
- Give detailed energy efficiency advice to customers at the point of installation.
- Equip its approved installers with clear and correct information for customers.
- Support customers with personalised advice.
ScottishPower can also measure the impact of the service through the tool by:
- Tracking the number of completed energy efficiency surveys via the tool.
- Seeing if an engineer has provided tailored energy efficiency advice to customers.
- Accessing specialised energy savings data.
The result
After introducing the tool, ScottishPower saw an improvement in its REC Energy Efficiency Advice Customer Survey scores. Other benefits of the tool include:
- A more comprehensive smart meter installation service.
- Increased customer satisfaction with the installation process.
- Potential energy savings and reduced carbon emissions for customers who implement the energy efficiency measures.
- Greater customer engagement.
- Flexibility to adjust the energy efficiency advice without needing to re-train installation engineers.
The energy efficiency advice tool ensures that when a customer has a smart meter installed, it is the start of their energy efficiency journey.
The tool has also helped ScottishPower to support customers with energy efficiency advice throughout the energy and cost-of-living crisis.
Related Content
City of London Corporation launches scheme to plug green skills gap
Extreme weather is already affecting homes and lives
- © Ocean Media Group