Linky: from this date, you will have to pay if you refuse the installation of the meter

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The electricity network manager, Enedis, will soon make the 2 million households that refuse to have the Linky meter installed pay.

There are still 2 million holdouts in France. The electricity network manager, Enedis, has deployed its Linky smart meter in 37.5 million homes, out of a housing stock that currently numbers 39.4 million. That is an equipment rate of 95%.The industrial deployment phase was completed in 2021, we have entered a transitional phase with a diffuse deployment”explains Enedis to Capital. For the last holdouts, the axe is coming soon. On August 1, 2025, the start date of the so-called “Turpe 7” period set up by the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE), the exceptional regime that allowed them to oppose the installation of Linky free of charge will end.

At this deadline, they will no longer have the opportunity to carry out the reading of the index of the small green box themselves to be exempt from fees by Enedis. It must be said that the manager must move up a gear, since article L341-4 of the energy code requires it to install Linky in all homes. In 2022, for example, it managed to convince 1 million households to take the plunge. The CRE has set a target of 100% of homes equipped by 2025. And to meet this deadline, the regulator has set up a system that is, to say the least, coercive.

A new contribution for Linky

Since January 1, 2022, all so-called households have been charged “mute”that is to say, who do not transmit their meter reading to Enedis at least once every 12 months – by email, telephone or SMS. Originally 49.80 euros excluding tax per year (8.30 euros every 2 months), this amount was revalued to 54.24 euros on January 1, 2023 (9.04 euros every 2 months). The deductions are suspended as soon as the household installs Linky or communicates its index, the latter option no longer being one as of August 1.

This levy will increase once again on August 1, 2025, and above all, therefore, become mandatory, the CRE estimating that the 2 million households not equipped by this deadline “will be by deliberate choice”specifies Enedis to Capital. The amount of this new contribution “will be set by the CRE” to come into force in the summer of 2025, explains the manager.