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 Smart meters are home based displays which will monitor in an more advanced way the energy (gas and electricity) and possibly even water consumption per household with remote access to utility provider. Instead of displaying the energy consumption in the usual units of kwh and cubic meters, the new smart meter will display the energy or water used in costs to the household. This will provide clearer information to the bill payer and should encourage energy and water savings. It will also spell the end of estimated bills and replace them with real-time actual consumption bills. In the long rum this new system should also encourage night time consumption (the so called economy 7 system) and replacing the economy 7 meters in the process. Whilst this development will be very much welcomed by the utilities, it should also provide opportunities for households to get a better grip on their utility bills and could reduce bills by up to 5%. With the first smart meters already installed, the aim is to get national coverage by 2020 for retail clients, for businesses a target date of 2017 is being used.
The arrival of the smart meter looks unstoppable, it looks like we will all have to join the monitoring bandwagon. But who is to benefit most from this device? It is estimated that the utility providers are to benefit around £6 - 8 billion pounds and estimated for households are up to £ 4 billion. It remains a question though how much consumers are actually going to adjust their energy consumption on the back of have this display in their homes. Are households really going to our their dishwasher or washing machine less as a result of the smart meter? Whilst on the other hand the advantages for the utilities are numerous. It remains to be seen how much of the smart meter installation costs will be paid for by the utilities and how much the consumers will end up paying for it. Even when utilities do the political more popular thing of not charging households for the smart meter installation, there are plenty of other ways in which utilities can defer the costs of this gigantic project to their retail clients, should they choose to do so. |
