New research by Uswitch Limited, a UK-based price comparison service, has shown that 60,000 new electricity meters were installed in Britain in the six months to March.
Nearly 10,000 prepayment meters are predicted to be installed every month this winter, according to the report.
The study has highlighted the risk of more disconnections, with households lacking credit on their meters as a consequence of the high cost of living in the UK.
“With energy prices set to rise again in April, this is a warning of things to come and we will most likely see more and more households moved to prepayment meters in the coming months and years,” said the director of regulation at Uswitch Richard Neudegg.
Essentially, analysts said the energy crisis had been building up over the past year, as increased demand during the post-Covid-19 reopening of economies coincided with Russia's invasion of Ukraine and a subsequent squeeze on gas supplies into Europe.
According to Aimee Ambrose, a professor of energy policy and trustee of the Fuel Poverty Research Network at Sheffield Hallam University, in October 2021, an estimated four million households in the UK were in fuel poverty.
Ambrose says the largest increase in gas and electricity prices ever in April 2022 has pushed a further 2.7 million UK households into fuel poverty.
Energy experts say most UK households pay their gas and electricity bills by direct debit, typically receiving quarterly bills.
New British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his government will have to dig deep and set plans in place to secure energy security ahead of winter, as Britons face economic and market turmoil, as well as a cost-of-living crisis propelled by soaring energy and food prices.