17 Jan 2008
Npower is to start an 18-month trial of real-time gas and electricity metering technology in 5,000 homes this spring.
Participating customers will receive up-to-the-minute information on their energy use through networked display units and text messaging services.
The aim is to find out how customers will want to use the technology, Npower commercial metering manager Jane Franklin told Computing.
“We are concentrating on customer reaction,” she said. “We will be able to provide information in a number of ways and will be looking at how people want to receive it.”
Options include providing data on specific activities affecting consumption, such as a spike in energy use caused by turning on a power shower, or alerts when use reaches a certain level.
As part of the pilot, smart technology will also be automatically installed
in Npower-served premises requiring meter upgrades to ensure a realistic
response.
“If a customer knows they are being monitored, they may react differently,” said
Franklin.
There have been widespread calls for mandatory rollout of smart meters following the government’s energy white paper in May. But the utilities industry needs to find a commercially sustainable model for the investment, said Franklin.
“The trial will inform the debate about finding a cost-effective solution to implementing universal smart metering,” she said.
The availability of detailed information about energy use will be a reality check for consumers, said Binoy Dharsi, lead analyst for energy and utilities at Datamonitor. “It will be like supermarket price tags for energy,” he said.
It will also mean the end of estimated billing.
“People will get accurate bills for a change, which has long been a bugbear for the industry,” said Dharsi.
The smart meters should end estimated billing, because they will provide suppliers with near real-time information about usage. This should allow suppliers to design tariffs to accomodate different people's lifestyles, ie those that can use more off peak energy, or "maternity and paternity" deals. But there should also be an opportunity, eventually for suppliers to contact the customers, either with useful updates, or for marketing purposes. There will be a facility for suppliers to send text-like messages to customers, which appear on in the corner of their display unit with the envelope icon.
Posted by: Janie 03 Sep 2008
I still fail to see why smart meters can't be implemented as hardware 'internal' to residences etc. without the need to upload data to the supplier. It strikes me that the main motivation behind any rollout of this system as proposed is the vast potential for increased consumer behaviour tracking. I haven't yet seen a full debate on the privacy issues associated with this rollout on any forum.
Posted by: Mike Byrne 02 Sep 2008
Consumers actually seem pretty keen on smart meters.
Acoording to the Energy Retail Association, 70 per cent of Brits believe new smart meter technology's real-time cash displays of energy usage would reduce their consumption and
79 per cent believe it is important that smart meters remove many of the costs of providing pre-pay meters.
See below:
http://www.energy-retail.org.uk /media/press/YouGovPersonalFinance.html
As long as smart meters are associated with energy savings, consumers are unlikely to argue. But if real time interaction between consumers and energy companies translates into a huge marketing opportunity for suppliers, things could turn sour.
Whether consumers continue to support the idea, when/if a domestic rollout is mandated, remains to be seen.
Posted by: Janie Davies 29 Jul 2008
Because what people want is usually the last thing they need, and what people don't want is the very thing they must have. Motorists want cheap fuel, but the pollution it causes kills up to a 1000 a year in some cities in Europe including London. What they want, is not what is RIGHT or GOOD for everyone else. That's why.
Posted by: Prof von Clarkson 29 Jul 2008
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