It looks like the long-awaited roll-out of smart meters in the UK has been put back yet again. An announcement from the Department of Environment and Climate Change had been expected last year, and then again at the start of this year. Now energy industry and government sources are saying that an announcement could come in April. The UK’s difficulties are a lesson to other countries seeking to press ahead with smart meter and smart grid technologies. The British government has already signalled that it is in favour of smart meters, which promise to give households the information they need to use less energy, as well as to allow for more accurate billing by energy suppliers. But it has yet to decide how the project will be rolled out.

One option would be to leave it to the market and allow energy companies to supply smart meters to their customers whenever they like. The other extreme would be divide the country into regional franchises, awarding contracts to companies to supply meters to these areas in bulk. Most people agree that the free market model would lead to a very slow roll-out, whereas the regional franchise model would be quicker but would compromise the concept of the UK’s liberalised energy market.

It looks likely, therefore, that a compromise solution will be chosen. The government is expected to award a multi-billion pound contract to create a centralised communications system for gathering data from smart meters. Energy suppliers will then be able to choose their own meter technology, as long as it is compatible with the communications system, and roll out smart meters to their customers at their own pace.

Installing smart meters is vital for making progress in micro-generation. If households are to generate their own power through solar panels and mini-wind turbines, they need to be able to measure how much power they sell back to the national grid.

But the real prize could be less peak demand for energy and therefore a reduced need for new power stations. Energy companies, although they don’t like to talk about it, would like to introduce different tariffs for different times of the day, and plan to charge customers more to use electricity during peak hours, such as the early evening. They would also make it cheaper to use power during off-peak times, such as late at night. This should smooth out power consumption and reduce the total amount of power generation capacity that needs to be available.

As energy companies come under pressure to ensure the lights won’t go out as older power stations shut down, the gains from smart metering look more attractive than ever.

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1. [...] UK Energy News Blog, Business Energy and the UK Energy Market – Catalyst Commercial Services created an interesting post today on Smart Meter Mandate:Here’s a short outlineIt looks like the long-awaited roll-out of smart meters in the UK has been put back yet again. An announcement from the Department of Environment and Climate Change had been expected last year, and then again at the start of this year. Now energy industry and government sources are saying that an announcement could come in April. The UK’s difficulties are a lesson to other countries seeking to press ahead with smart meter and smart grid technologies. The British government has already signalle [...]

   Pingback by Topics about Climate » Archive » Smart Meter Mandate: — March 25, 2009 @ 11:33 am

2. [...] UK Energy News Blog, Business Energy and the UK Energy Market – Catalyst Commercial Services placed an observative post today on Smart Meter Mandate:Here’s a quick excerptIt looks like the long-awaited roll-out of smart meters in the UK has been put back yet again. An announcement from the Department of Environment and Climate Change had been expected last year, and then again at the start of this year. Now energy industry and government sources are saying that an announcement could come in April. The UK’s difficulties are a lesson to other countries seeking to press ahead with smart meter and smart grid technologies. The British government has already signalle [...]

   Pingback by Topics about Energy » Archive » Smart Meter Mandate: — March 25, 2009 @ 11:38 am

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