Thames Water has told regulator Ofwat it has yet to start a programme of smart meter installation despite a deadline of March 2025.
The embattled utility was allocated £71.9mln out of a total of £2.7bn for smart meters as part of the green economic recovery (GER) programme.
In a performance update, Thames Water said: “There has been no delivery on the programme in 2022/23, although £1.062m has been spent on preparatory work for meter installations.”
According to the Guardian, more than 200,000 pre-installation surveys have been carried out and 9,000 digs done to prepare for future meter fitting.
More than 900,000 smart meters outside the GER scheme, said the report.
Thames Water has just emerged from a financing crisis that saw its chief executive depart and calls for the utility to be renationalised.
An emergency £750mln was raised from investors earlier this month but it needs a further £2.5bn to improve its infrastructure and cut its £14bn debt pile.
On Friday, the rating agency Moody’s downgraded the debt rating of its holding company from B1 to B2 amid ongoing concerns about whether the cash raised would be enough to stabilise its credit quality.