The government was today accused of hindering the widespread adoption of smart meters and imposing unnecessary costs upon energy companies through its plans for the rollout of simpler clip-on electricity monitors.

As part of its Energy White Paper the government has proposed that energy companies should be mandated to supply customers with free clip-on monitors that are attached to the energy meter and send a signal to a monitor elsewhere in the house showing householders how much energy they are using in real time.

However, the Energy Retail Association (ERA) and energy meter company Onzo have today joined forces to criticise the move, which they claim will hinder the adoption of more sophisticated smart meters that provide two-way communication with energy companies and can underpin a range of functionality, such as notifying customers if they are using too much energy or automatically turning off appliances when electricity costs are at their highest.

Speaking ahead of next week's close to the consultation period for the billing and metering section of the whitepaper, ERA chief executive Duncan Sedgwick said that imposing clip-on meters upon the industry would fail to deliver the desired benefits of reducing household energy use.

"This proposal is a distraction to the rollout of smart meters, which crucially include gas as well as electricity, as the devices will be redundant when smart meters are installed," he said. "Now is the golden opportunity for the government to give us the green light on smart meters."

Joel Hagan, chief executive of Onzo, added that currently the whitepaper only expresses an expectation that sophisticated smart meters will be rolled out and urged the government to set mandatory targets.

"We want to see smart meters rolled out on an aggressive seven year timeline, " he said. "The clip-ons could cause a delay to that meaning it could be 12 to 15 years before we see widespread use of smart meters."

He insisted that smart meters would represent a win-win scenario, benefiting the government, customers and energy companies.

"The government should want them as they will help it meet carbon cutting targets, customers will appreciate lower bills, and even the energy companies are broadly in favour as it means they don’t have to invest as much in meter readings and call centres," he argued.