New regulations and amendments enacting changes to smart metering consumer protections were signed into force in May 2026, according to the government's Clean Flexibility Roadmap July 2026 update1. The update was published by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, working with Ofgem and NESO, and follows the July 2025 Clean Flexibility Roadmap that the three bodies jointly published1.
The same document sets out the wider flexibility picture the metering changes sit within. By mid-June 2026, Ofgem and Elexon had overseen the migration of more than 11.3 million smart meters to half-hourly settlement, and a third of Britain's electricity metering systems now operate under half-hourly settlement arrangements1. The update describes this as laying the foundations for a national transition to flexible consumer tariffs, which it says will offer households the opportunity to control their demand to lower their bills1.
On storage, Ofgem published its minded to position on 26 June 2026 to provide cap and floor investment support to 7.6GW of new Long Duration Electricity Storage projects, across 16 projects amounting to 137GWh of capacity1. The document states the new capacity is mostly pumped storage hydro and lithium-ion batteries, with one compressed air energy storage project and one vanadium redox flow battery1. UK grid-scale battery storage power capacity reached 7.5GW in 2025, with a record 2.3GW energised in that year alone1.
The update also lists new commitments. These include government assessing the feasibility of consumers accessing support for low carbon technologies doing so on a flexible tariff, with an option to opt out, and taking primary legislative powers when parliamentary time allows to enable removal of final consumption levies for demand turn up1. It states government will future-proof technical specifications for energy smart appliance interoperability so they can be expanded to cover bidirectional electric vehicle charging and Home Energy Management Systems1.
"New regulations and amendments enacting these changes were signed into force in May 2026"
The document does not set out the specific content of the May 2026 regulations or which consumer protections they change; that detail has not been reported in this update1.
| Measure | Figure given |
|---|---|
| Smart meters migrated to half-hourly settlement | More than 11.3 million, by mid-June 2026 |
| Share of GB electricity metering systems on half-hourly settlement | A third |
| LDES projects in Ofgem's minded to position | 16 projects, 7.6GW, 137GWh |
| UK grid-scale battery storage power capacity, 2025 | 7.5GW, with 2.3GW added in 2025 |
Why it matters for households
Half-hourly settlement is the mechanism that lets a supplier bill a household for when electricity is used rather than only how much. The update links it directly to flexible tariffs, which it says give households the chance to shift demand and lower bills1. For a home, that is the practical route from a meter reading to a price signal: the meter data has to be settled in half-hourly periods before a time-of-use tariff can be built on it. The smart meter rollout is the hardware side of that, and the rules and supplier obligations are the part the May 2026 regulations sit within. The update also commits to future-proofing interoperability specifications for Home Energy Management Systems and bidirectional EV charging1, which affects whether home energy management equipment bought now can take part in flexibility later. The document frames the overall aim as greater consumer control over energy use and savings without disrupting everyday life, based on NESO scenario modelling of an eight-fold increase in clean flexibility capacity from 2024 to 20501.
What happens next
DESNZ, Ofgem and NESO are running a summer 2026 Roadmap Forum in July 2026 to take forward the approaches, progress indicators and commitments in the update1. Government expects to introduce secondary legislation in Parliament later in 20261. NESO will publish skip rate figures for clean flexibility behind thermal constraints by Q3 2026, and will connect CrowdFlex innovation project outputs to live and near-real-time data sources by June 20271. Defra plans to consult in summer 2027 on detailed regulatory policy proposals1.