eMeter Claim UK Smart Meter Deployment Can Be Streamlined

Saturday, 16 January 2010 09:22

0 Comments

A United States smart meter software company says the U.K. deployment plan could be streamlined and economized. eMeter  says UK government estimates to install the smart meters in 47 million homes by 2020 for $14 billion are overblown.

“The government estimates of eight billion pounds are around a quarter too high,” states eMeter chief strategy officer Chris King, who claims that the deployment could cost two billion pounds less and be completed by 2016 by changing the transmission method.

The British government’s cost analysis includes approximately five pounds per meter per year in communication costs, specifically, transmitting data over mobile and fixed-line telephone networks. But King says using wireless radio devices rather than inserting mobile phone chips into each meter, could result in huge savings.

A wireless strategy could allow data to be received from hundreds of nearby homes rather than just one. Using wireless, consumers would be able to access their usage data via the internet, negating the current plan to install home display devices, which in turn, would save even more.

“This would be a much cheaper way to do things,” King said, adding, “Enel in Italy installed around 30 million meters in five years.”

eMeter, which has been involved in smart meter roll outs in Canada, Finland, Sweden, and the United States, is currently in discussions with the UK’s top six utilities  about using their wireless devices.

Angus Doyle, CEO at SmartMeters.com rebutted the statement from King by saying "While eMeter’s ideas and technology are sound, they are not taking into consideration that consumers need to have a visual reminder of the energy they are consuming and the costs of that consumption, having tested these similar technology whereas one would have to go manually check the stats on the internet, I found from experience that we managed to save more energy having a separate smart energy display unit.  If the UK government want to reach its Carbon Reduction targets then the UK population need to be educated in real time, checking stats on the internet will be a passing fad, however there is scope in having internet enabled smart energy display units that can allow for further analytics using technologies such as Google power meter; in the first instance, basic information should be transmitted from the Smart Meter, not uploaded, manipulated and then wait and see if the consumer goes online to check."