By Chris Chambers
Did you know that between 2014 and 2018 most homes within the UK will
have a Smartmeter installed? This is just one of many measures and schemes in place by the Government in order to meet the legal requirement to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. The meters will replace your existing meter and
will monitor your energy usage - you'll never have to read or send a
reading to your supplier again as that will be automated via a mobile
phone type signal. It should also provide you with detailed information
about your homes energy usage and help you see where you can save
energy.
The meter will be replaced by your
electricity distributor - not a regular electrician but www.wigglies.co.uk and www.proudhouseproperty.co.uk
can provide help and assistance with upgrading home electrics and
advising. See the Gov link for more detail on Smart Meters. https://www.gov.uk/smart-meters-how-they-work
And one energy company is already supplying them! Click here
I heard that these will be mandatory and will cost £350 per household - also, they'll only save you an average of £20 per year?
ReplyDeleteHi Tim, thanks for your comment. I can offer only a little bit of opinion and speculation since the whole programme is going to be contentious!
DeleteInstallation will be free and there will be no upfront charge to the consumer. Since the household meter (smart or not) is the property of the District Network Operator and not the consumer then I would say it is going to be very difficult to charge a consumer a direct fee. More likely, the cost will be recovered through the utility bill over a period of time - if this was done in a similar way to the "Golden Rule" of the Green Deal (see another post of mine) then the cost would be met by the savings made over a period of time and the consumer would be no worse off than if it had never been installed - however, there may be a problem with that...
...a Smart Meter is not an energy saving measure per se - it can only encourage people to alter their behaviour and usage so quantifying savings will be very difficult. Saying consumers will save £20 a year is actually nonsense - anyone can attempt (or not attempt) to cut down their energy usage and save (or not save) money whether they have a Smart Meter or not!!
However, there are potential energy savings at the generation end as well: the challenge for electricity generation is to match supply to demand since storing electricity is difficult. More accurate and near real-time monitoring of usage from the consumer end could allow improved matching of supply to demand and reduce wasted energy generation. When you consider that the National Grid is only 33% efficient then there is potentially large savings in fuel and CO2 to be made - which ultimately is the aim of the Smart Meter roll out. Dealing with CO2 is cheaper than dealing with the impact of climate change and I think ultimately the consumer is going to have to pay for that, either directly or indirectly.