What changed on 23 February 2026
Ofgem introduced three new Guaranteed Standards of Performance (GSOPs) for smart meters, which came into force on 23 February 2026. A Guaranteed Standard is just regulator-speak for "your supplier owes you money automatically if they breach this, no application needed." The full press release sits on Ofgem's website.
The three new triggers are simple:
- GSOP 1. You wait more than six weeks for a smart meter installation appointment after asking for one.
- GSOP 2. Your booked installation fails for a reason within the supplier's control (engineer no-show, missing part, paperwork error).
- GSOP 3. You report a smart meter fault and your supplier does not provide a written resolution plan within five working days.
Each breach is worth £40, paid as account credit or into your bank within 10 working days. Miss that 10-day window and the supplier owes a further £40 on top. Ofgem expects suppliers to monitor and pay automatically, so in theory you do not need to claim.
The dumb-meter gap that still hurts
The headline omission is GSOP 4, the proposed standard for smart meters that have stopped sending readings, often called "dumb" meters. Ofgem floated a rule that would have paid £40 if a meter was not fixed within 90 days of you reporting it had lost its smart functionality. That rule did not take effect on 23 February. Ofgem has said it is "working on the details" and intends to bring it in later in 2026, after sorting through technical questions about DCC connectivity and the 2G/3G to 4G hub upgrade that is still running across the country.
In plain English, if your smart meter quietly stops talking to your supplier and a technician cannot fix it, you can still report it. The five-working-day resolution-plan clock (GSOP 3) starts ticking. But there is no "fix within 90 days or pay me £40" backstop yet.
Why this rule matters more to battery owners
For most households, a smart meter going wrong is a low-stakes irritation. The IHD goes blank, the supplier reverts to estimated readings, the bill swings around a bit. Annoying, not financially catastrophic.
For a home battery owner on a time-of-use tariff, it is a different shape of problem. The whole economic model of the battery is built on a half-hourly settled smart meter. Octopus Go pays 9.5p per kWh between 00:30 and 05:30 and roughly 32p to 36p outside those hours. The arbitrage only works if your supplier can see that you bought 11.5 kWh of electricity during the cheap window and used most of it during the day. Without half-hourly data, the supplier cannot bill you on the time-of-use tariff at all, and most will default you to the standard variable rate while they investigate.
We work through the underlying maths in how much a home battery can save, but the short version is that a typical 11.5kWh Habo system saves a UK household roughly £800 to £950 a year on Octopus Go. Drop to the price cap unit rate while the meter is dumb and that saving evaporates pro-rata. Three months of SVT billing on a battery household is around £200 to £240 of lost savings, well above the £40 GSOP payment that may eventually arrive.
| Scenario | Tariff in force | Approx. saving per month | Net of any £40 GSOP credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smart meter working, Octopus Go | 9.5p off-peak / ~33.5p peak | £70 to £80 | n/a |
| Smart meter in "dumb" mode for 3 months, on SVT | Standard variable rate | £0 to £10 | Net loss of roughly £160 to £200 versus a working meter |
| Resolution plan late (GSOP 3 breach) | n/a, but automatic £40 due | n/a | +£40 (or +£80 if late) |
That is the asymmetry the new rules do not fix: the compensation is calibrated for a typical household with no time-of-use exposure. Battery owners stand to lose far more than £40 from a long outage, so prevention and fast escalation are what counts.
Buying a battery in 2026? Get the smart meter sorted first
An MCS-certified battery install in the UK assumes a SMETS2 smart meter on site so that time-of-use charging can be commissioned. The order of operations matters:
- Confirm you have a SMETS2 meter, not SMETS1. Around 11.3 million SMETS1 meters have now been migrated to the DCC network and most behave like SMETS2, but a small number still don't support half-hourly settlement reliably. Your supplier can tell you which you have.
- If you don't have a smart meter at all, request one before booking the battery. The new six-week clock helps here: the supplier has a regulatory incentive to install promptly. Gov.uk's smart meter overview explains the basics.
- Move onto a time-of-use tariff once the meter is in. See our best tariffs for battery storage guide for the current shortlist, and our Octopus tariff guide for the specifics on Octopus Go and Intelligent Octopus Go.
- Check the IHD weekly for the first month. Half-hourly readings should be visible to your supplier within 24 hours. If they aren't, raise a fault straight away.
The Habo Energy installation pack is built around this sequence so that the cheap-rate clock starts on day one. We cover the wider compliance picture in our home battery installation rules guide.
If your meter goes dumb after install: a 5-step plan
If your battery is already on the wall and the smart meter falls over, the new rules give you a clearer path. The aim is to keep the five-working-day resolution-plan clock running and to stop your supplier quietly slipping you onto SVT.
- Report the fault in writing. Email or in-app chat is best, so you have a timestamp. Phone calls count, but get a reference number and follow up by email.
- Ask explicitly for a written resolution plan within five working days. Cite GSOP 3. Most front-line agents will not know the rule by name; the wording "resolution plan" is the trigger.
- Ask your supplier to keep you on your time-of-use tariff and bill on agreed half-hourly schedules. Some suppliers will do this voluntarily for a few weeks; others will need pushing.
- Submit manual readings. You cannot prove half-hourly use without the meter, but a daily or weekly photo of the import register and any battery app screenshots create a paper trail.
- If no plan arrives in five working days, you are owed £40 automatically. If it does not appear on your bill within 10 working days, you are owed another £40. If the meter is still dumb a few months in, escalate to the Energy Ombudsman; it is free and binding on the supplier.
How this stacks with other 2026 rule changes
The smart meter standards are one of several Ofgem and DESNZ moves landing this year that affect battery economics. The lower standing-charge tariff pilot opened in April 2026 and we cover the trade-off in our standing charges guide. The Market-Wide Half-Hourly Settlement (MHHS) programme is in its migration phase through October 2026, which makes it more important again that smart meters in time-of-use households are reading correctly. And BS 7671 Amendment 4 (15 April 2026) reshaped where home batteries can be installed; the detail is in our installation rules guide.
None of these were written with battery owners in mind specifically. Taken together, though, they make the SMETS2 meter the single most important bit of kit in the house after the battery itself.
Frequently asked questions
Does the £40 apply to landlords, tenants or only the bill payer?
The Guaranteed Standards apply to the supplier's customer of record, which is whoever is named on the account, normally the bill payer. Tenants on a deemed contract count. If you are a landlord paying the supply yourself, the £40 comes to you. If your tenant pays the supply, it goes to them. Citizens Advice has detail on tenancy and metering rights on the consumer energy pages.
Can my supplier blame the DCC for a dumb meter and refuse the £40?
For the three rules now in force, no. The five-working-day resolution-plan clock is on the supplier regardless of who is technically at fault. The supplier owes you a plan, not a fix, within five working days. For the proposed 90-day "fix or pay" rule, Ofgem has flagged DCC accountability as one of the technical questions still being worked through. That is exactly why GSOP 4 is not in force yet.
I am still on a SMETS1 meter. Am I covered?
Yes, the standards apply to smart meters generally, not just SMETS2. If your SMETS1 meter has been migrated to the DCC network and still loses smart functionality, your supplier is responsible for the resolution plan. If it has not been migrated and you want a time-of-use tariff for a battery, ask for an upgrade. The DESNZ smart meter implementation update for May 2026 reports that about 11.3 million SMETS1 meters now run through the DCC.
Will the rules speed up a smart meter install for a battery booking?
In practice, yes. Six weeks is a tight window, and suppliers do not like paying automatic compensation. If you ask for a meter at the same time as booking your battery, you should expect to have a working SMETS2 in place well before the installer arrives. We sequence this for Habo customers as standard.
What if my supplier just sends me an apology email instead of fixing it?
An apology email is not a resolution plan. A resolution plan should state what is wrong, what will be done about it, and when. If you have not had something matching that within five working days of reporting, you are owed £40. The Energy Ombudsman handles disputes for free once you have given the supplier eight weeks to resolve, or earlier if they issue a deadlock letter.
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