The organisation leading the smart meter roll-out today opened a new facility in Greater Manchester to help facilitate deployment.

The Smart Data Communications Company (DCC) says the new Brabazon House facility has 19 modular test labs with 2,400 smart meters test spaces and expects it will bring 250 jobs to the city region as it helps drive towards net-zero carbon emissions.

The site, which boasts bio-metric security features such as iris scans, is equipped to handle vast amounts of data and will use video walls to help visualise 70 million messages transmitted by smart meters every month.

It can automatically detect and help manage issues that arise during the roll-out and operation of 53 million energy smart meters across the UK’s homes and small businesses.

The DCC says its testing facilities will help to smooth the installation process and help complete complex tasks such as migrating the millions of first-generation meters to the its network.

Richard McCarthy CBE, Chairman of the DCC, said: “Brabazon House improves the way the DCC works in many ways, accelerating the work of digitising Britain analogue energy industry.

“This facility will bring improved support for customers via our technical operation centre and expansive test labs. It will be a hotbed of innovation, allowing the DCC to work with its customers in new ways, shaping the future of this important national infrastructure project.”