Following on from yesterdays long awaited announcement on the roll-out of SmartMeters from the DECC and its roadmap that provides some direction for market participants. SmartMeters.com gets the lowdown from the industry heads.

Mark England, managing director of Sentec, said: “Smart metering is a key enabler in the government’s push towards reducing carbon emissions in line with EU targets and has the potential to transform the way we all produce, consume and pay for our energy: it would be difficult to underestimate the impact of the national roll-out programme on the energy industry and its stakeholders. This report from DECC gives us a much clearer picture of the way the market is likely to be structured and after chomping at the bit for a number of years, market participants have now been let out of the starter gates.”

However, although Sentec believes that the announcement of a roadmap is positive for the energy industry and for Britain’s efforts to meet its ambitious targets for CO2 reduction, it also believes that the market model may provide an obstacle for consumers who wish to take advantage of all that smart meters can offer.

England explains: “In the short term, smart meters will enable suppliers and customers to share information that will help consumers take greater control of their own energy use. This should help them to cut costs and emissions, and has the potential to make a huge difference in its own right. But it is only the beginning of what can be achieved. Smart meters are, in effect, a gateway to a huge range of possibilities, including increased micro-generation, greater use of renewables, and a whole range of home management options. But these opportunities will only be realised if sufficient room for competition and innovation is built into the market design. An overly-prescribed, standardised model may take a particular view on how the interoperability of all the meters might work at the expense of that need to drive competition and create a market in which consumers can make real choices.”

Hermione Crease, marketing director at Sentec agrees: “The final design of the UK system must incorporate provision for remunerating meter asset owners for providing more sophisticated smart meters with benefits that consumers will value. There is also a big role for somebody to help consumers understand what the potential benefits of smart meters are: no-one has, as yet, grasped the nettle when it comes to showing customers exactly how these things could work and what benefits and general features they could have. We need to encourage an open competitive market so that consumers can decide their preferred supplier, tariff and level of functionality from their smart meter without being hampered by the infrastructure in place – just as they can with broadcast services for example.”

England concludes: “We must make sure there are sufficient motivational factors for suppliers to change, improve or differentiate their services. If not we could end up with a snapshot of our current technology capabilities, frozen in time, that will close the market for other services to be introduced on the back of smart metering. British innovation in this field leads the world and there are plenty of companies and individuals developing exciting products that fit into a genuinely transformative, smart-meter powered landscape. It would be one of the biggest missed opportunities in British industrial history if we did not take advantage of that.”

Clearly England and Crease of Sentec have the right idea, SmartMeters.com endorses this chain of thought. The technology must be adaptable and an industry technology standard must be in place before a single meter is installed, the UK Government must capture the opportunity to open a whole new job marketplace in the SmartEnergy Sector, the Spinoff potential is too vast to simply ignore and as Mark England commented "the biggest missed opportunities in British industrial history". 

If you would like to find out more about the DECC announcement and view the consultation documentation please visit:

http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/consultations/smart_metering/smart_metering.aspx

 

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