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There is a quiet revolution brewing, set to herald the biggest logistical exercise for the energy industry since the introduction of North Sea gas in the early ‘70s. And leading this revolution is the smart meter. Its moniker is no joke; it really is much cleverer than your current meter. It will send remote readings directly to your supplier, consigning to history the days of staying in for the meter reader – or worse, getting bills based on estimated readings. Your smart meter should also download important communications from your supplier, like tariff information for example. Where it really comes into its own, is as part of a home area network, when your smart meter will provide the real time cost of the energy you consume - what better encouragement to turn off appliances rather than put them on standby? This energy efficiency not only saves money, but is vital to the government’s plans to meet ambitious national carbon reduction targets as set out in this month’s White Paper, the UK Low Carbon Transition Plan. Now the really clever bit. Electricity smart meters should be capable of measuring energy flow in both directions, which is important for the government’s ‘clean energy cash back’ scheme for micro-generation exports to the grid. The prospect of earning money exporting surplus power through your smart meter and onto the grid makes the economics of installing home generation rather more attractive. The government aims to complete the roll out by 2020. Yet to be decided however, is exactly how 47m existing meters up and down the country will be replaced with their ‘smart’ counterpart. The problems of how vast streams of data from these meters and associated communications infrastructure are to be managed must also be solved. The favoured model will allow your current energy supplier to install its smart meter of choice, using its own installation programme, with a new national agency tasked with setting up the necessary communications infrastructure and managing data flows. The data protection and privacy issues have yet to be worked out. Smart metering is not just good news for consumers and the environment; it is already spawning jobs as the supply chain prepares. British Gas recently announced it will be opening an Energy Academy in Leicester to train an army of meter installation engineers, expecting to create 2,600 new jobs by 2012. Smart metering will lead to the evolution of ‘smart grids’. Access to real time energy consumption and micro-generation data at a household level will see the development of new ways for our power systems to be more efficiently managed – smart by name, smart by nature. For further information please contact: Andrew Whitehead, Partner
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