Government announce £8.6billion energy meter roll out
Posted by richard lupo on Tue, Apr 12, 2011
The Government announced a couple of weeks ago the roll-out time table for smart meters. The roll-out will take place between 2014 and 2019 and the meters will have been installed in 30 million homes in the UK. The question is, will they be code compliant meters for new build homes?
Firstly, what are smart meters
They are meters which send information about your household directly to your energy supplier so there is no need for the company to come to your home to read your meter. In short more accurate readings for the energy bills to the customer.
What are energy monitors?
For the resident to see energy use in real time they will need an energy monitor. They give information on the amount of energy currently in use as well as the cost. They can be used around the house because they are portable. The combined use of the smart meters and the energy monitor can lead to savings since it will allows residents to control the amount of energy being used.
How the roll out works?
Government has made it compulsory for every houshold to have a smart meter by 2020. This is part of the Government's plan to reduce carbon emissions caused by the current housing stock by 80% by 2050.
The estimated roll out will cost approximately £8.6 billion. At the moment, it seems that payment for this roll out will come from consumers with the money obtained from rising gas and electricity.
Recent changes to the code and meters
In November last year new credits were introduced into Technical Guide. New credits, in the Code for Sustainable Homes, reward new homes with energy display devices fixed into the meter with a display in a convenient place.
SHIFT members experiences
We have received a report from one of our SHIFT members who found that the smart meters that were installed in their new homes, weren’t so smart after all. In order for the occupant to get the “real-time” energy use data, they had to boot up their computer (if they had one), log-on to a specific website (having remembered all their log–in details) and then they could finally look at consumption data, which unfortunately, was a download of the previous days usage.
At SHIFT learning events we have seen evidence of the immense influence energy monitors can have on people’s behavior, but only if the occupant can see immediate usage. Hardly the case in the scenario above. In the end, the SHIFT member went round and installed energy monitors in the new properties which no doubt proved more use to the tenant.
Smart meter implications
Code compliance is a concern for new build, but the roll-out is primarily aimed at existing build. Nevertheless if a smart meter does incorporate a conveniently viewed display showing instantaneous consumption then the benefits will be available to all UK households. It will be interesting to see the detailed specifications of these meters.
That aside, the message is that smart meters will help with the UK’s carbon reduction. Cost savings are projected for consumers due to less management costs on the side of the billing companies. The meters will be able to be read remotely, so there will be no need for estimated bills, nor meter readers, nor excessive call centre traffic.
Another projected benefit of the meters is that they will enable smart grids to be set up. Smart grids will allow better data collection from consumers and hence reduce the need for oversupply of electricity. Repairs and maintenance of substations will be easier to identify and hence will help the grid work more efficiently. The smart grids may also help with efficient distribution of electricity from micro-generation. One further and interesting opportunity is to encourage consumers to use electricity when it is cheap to generate. In other words, lower tariffs when the wind is blowing, to be used on non-urgent devices like washing machines or even charging electric cars.
This is starting to sound very hi-tech but the evidence suggests that a simple immediate benefit can be gained by ensuring that consumers can monitor their immediate energy use conveniently.