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The Governments Consulatation on Smart Meters is published.

In July 2009 the Government committed to a European directive which meant as an EU member state Britain would be obliged to enable intelligent metering systems for domestic gas and electricity customers. The consultation that followed has now been published and despite the estimated £11.7 billion cost of replacing around 53 million gas and electricity meters with the new smart meters, the scheme has been well received by both consumer groups and the energy industry.

" The information provided by Smart Meters will help consumers to better manage and reduce energy use and potentially save money and switching between suppliers will be smoother and faster. Energy suppliers will be able to offer a wider range of services and tariffs to manage their customer relationships better. Smart Meters will also be an important step towards the development of a Smart Grid, delivering improved network efficiency and responsiveness." Charles Hendry, Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change December 2010

The consulatation estimates that by providing real-time information about energy costs Smart Meters will help customers understand their energy consumption and make savings of around £4.6 billion. The Smart Meters capacity to remotely communicate with energy suppliers has two important benefits which should further reduce customers energy bills. Firstly, collection of billing information will be more efficient, there will no longer be a need to send someone to read your meter which will reduce the energy suppliers costs. Secondly, as readings will no longer be estimated, over or under payment by the customer will be eliminated, further reducing administration costs. It is also hoped that the Smart Meters ability to monitor a greater degree of detail of customers energy usage will also lead to suppliers developing more sophisticated tariff structures.

 

Submitted by The Office on Tuesday 30th August 2011