British Gas customers to get the smart meter hard sell

Energy giant to step up efforts to win round consumers

The last Labour government launched a scheme to get smart meters into every UK home by 2020

Energy supplier British Gas has promised to raise customer awareness of the benefits of installing smart meters, to ensure the success of one of the largest technology projects taking place in the UK over the coming years.

British Gas is already committed to deploying smart meters – capable of monitoring energy consumption in real time – in a million UK homes this year, as part of £9bn programme initiated by the previous government that aims to get the devices into every UK home by 2020.

“Our initial feedback tells us that customers find the [meter’s] in-home display invaluable, because it lets them know how much they’re spending,” said Petter Allison, director of smart metering at British Gas.

Smart meters are seen as the enabling technology that will help the UK move towards a more sustainable economy, helping householders to track their usage and enable energy providers to alter pricing according to demand – which is necessary if unpredictable renewable sources of energy form part of the supply.

Allison believes that the technology challenges of deploying smart meters are relatively minor, providing that energy suppliers agree to common standards, such as using Zigbee to provide the short-range wireless communications within the home.

Early smart meter trials across the globe have proved controversial. Earlier this year, the Dutch government revised plans to make smart meters compulsory, after citizens complained that regular transmission of energy use amounted to an infringement on their privacy.

Smart meters only reduce energy consumption when they help homeowners take control of their energy use, said Sarah Darby, an energy researcher at the University of Oxford. Efforts should be focused “on designing customer interfaces for ease of understanding, and on guiding occupants towards appropriate action,” she added.