Smart Meter Compensation: A £40 Right Most Households Don’t Know About
Quietly, back in February, Ofgem gave energy suppliers a new reason to stop dragging their feet on smart meters. Since 23 February 2026, three new rules mean you’re entitled to automatic smart meter compensation if your supplier misses specific deadlines, no complaint letter required.
Most households have never heard of it. That’s not an accident. Smart meter compensation is only useful to your supplier’s bottom line if nobody claims it, and an automatic payment only stays automatic if someone on their end actually processes it without being chased.
It arrives after years of a smart meter rollout that’s had a rocky reputation, patchy installation slots, meters that lose signal, engineers who never show. Ofgem’s answer wasn’t another awareness campaign. It was a financial penalty attached directly to the delay.
When Are You Owed Smart Meter Compensation?
There are three separate triggers. The first: you’re waiting for a smart meter installation and your supplier can’t offer an appointment within six weeks. The second: an installation appointment is booked, then falls through because of a fault on your supplier’s side, not yours.
The third covers faults after installation. If you report a problem with your smart meter, your supplier has five working days to give you a resolution plan. Miss that, and smart meter compensation kicks in again.
How Much Is Smart Meter Compensation Worth?
£40 per breach, paid automatically and without you needing to ask. Ofgem’s rules say the payment has to reach you within 10 working days of the missed standard, whichever of the three triggers applies.
It’s not designed to be huge. It’s designed to be annoying enough for suppliers that meeting the deadline in the first place is the cheaper option. A supplier that’s chronically slow on installations, multiplied across thousands of customers, notices £40 payments adding up fast.
Say you booked a smart meter install in April and got pushed back appointment after appointment with no date inside six weeks. That’s smart meter compensation owed there and then, whether or not you ever get round to asking for it. The whole point of the Do Nothing Default is that suppliers count on you not asking. This is one of the rare cases where doing nothing still gets you paid, provided the payment actually turns up.
The 3 smart meter compensation triggers
- No installation appointment offered within 6 weeks: £40
- Installation appointment fails due to a fault on the supplier’s side: £40
- No resolution plan within 5 working days of reporting a fault: £40
- Payment must land within 10 working days, automatically
How Do You Actually Claim Smart Meter Compensation?
In theory, you don’t have to do anything. The rules require suppliers to pay automatically once a deadline is missed. In practice, it’s worth keeping a rough note of dates, when you booked an appointment, when it fell through, when you reported a fault, so you’ve got something to point to if a payment doesn’t turn up.
If 10 working days pass after a missed standard and nothing has landed, contact your supplier directly and quote the relevant Guaranteed Standard of Performance. If that goes nowhere, the Energy Ombudsman can step in once your complaint has been open for eight weeks, or sooner if your supplier issues a deadlock letter.
Smart meter compensation is separate from any wider billing dispute, so raising one doesn’t stop you also querying your bill if something else looks wrong. Keep the two issues distinct in writing, since suppliers sometimes try to bundle a compensation claim into a general complaint and let it drag out longer than the 10 working day rule allows.
Does Smart Meter Compensation Apply to Everyone?
Almost. The rules cover domestic customers and microbusinesses on either a SMETS1 or SMETS2 smart meter, which between them cover the vast majority of homes with a smart meter installed or booked in.
One gap worth knowing about: a fourth proposed standard, covering meters that lose smart function and sit “not smart” for more than 90 days, is still under Ofgem review. It isn’t live yet, so smart meter compensation doesn’t currently cover that specific problem, though Ofgem has said it intends to finalise it later in 2026.
For the general basics of what a smart meter does and whether you should get one, our smart meters guide for UK households covers the fundamentals this compensation rule builds on top of. It’s also worth understanding how your wider energy tariff works, since a compensation payment is separate from anything you’re owed through a tariff dispute or overcharging.
Roo thinks £40 for doing precisely nothing is about as close to free money as energy bills get. Worth five minutes to check if you’re owed it.
Frequently asked questions about smart meter compensation
- When did the smart meter compensation rules start?
- The three current Guaranteed Standards of Performance took effect on 23 February 2026, covering installation delays, failed appointments and unresolved faults.
- How much is smart meter compensation?
- £40 per missed standard, paid automatically within 10 working days, without you needing to submit a claim or chase your supplier.
- What if my supplier doesn’t pay smart meter compensation automatically?
- Contact your supplier directly, quoting the relevant Guaranteed Standard of Performance, and keep a record of the dates involved. If it’s still unresolved, the Energy Ombudsman can help once your complaint has been open eight weeks.
- Does smart meter compensation cover a meter that’s lost its smart function?
- Not yet. A fourth standard covering meters “not smart” for over 90 days is still under Ofgem review and isn’t part of the current rules.
- Do businesses qualify for smart meter compensation?
- Microbusinesses with a SMETS1 or SMETS2 meter are covered under the same rules as domestic households. Larger businesses fall outside this particular scheme.
None of this fixes a genuinely broken installation process, but it does mean your supplier now has a real financial reason to sort it. Check your dates, and don’t assume the £40 will find its own way to you.
