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November 5, 2012

The Smart Energy Revolution is Underway

John Peters
Managing Director, Engage Consulting

Power Channels: Energy Efficiency, European Power News, Power Quality Protection, Smart Grid Power

The UK government has set ambitious targets of having a smart meter installed in every home by 2019 and for every person to be offered an In-Home Display, a small device depicting real time energy usage using graphics. Having up to the minute information about energy consumption will enable consumers for the first time to understand their energy usage patterns clearly and make choices about how and when they use energy, which could reduce the cost of their bills and energy use.

Earlier this year, analysts Frost & Sullivan predicted that smart meter revenue in Europe will grow from $318.4 million in 2010 to $1.93 billion in 2017 at a compound annual growth rate of 29.3 per cent. The smart meter installed base in Europe is expected to grow from 43.90 million in 2010 to 200.43 million in 2017. In Europe, the European Commission has set targets that 80% of meters across all member states will be smart by 2020, and 100% by 2025 (where the member state believes that there is benefit).

How Smart Systems will benefit utilities companies and their customers

Consumer experience across many sectors is moving towards active participation and choice. By embedding intelligence and control in the infrastructure that underpins smart systems in the home – starting with smart meters – consumers will be able to exercise more choice over their energy use and costs. Using smart meters both utility companies and customers will better manage the demand and supply of energy, which opens up the prospect of innovative new tariffs and charging structures.

Utility companies will have greater control over their assets, as well as access to more granular data about asset performance and how customers are using energy, energy demands and the impact that demand has on the system.

As network intelligence and instrumentation increases, we expect to see a move from simplistic on/off control to a control system that responds to a wide variety of stimulants, including economic signals. The kind of data that can be extracted from Smart Meters varies territory by territory. We see a trend towards the innovative use of Smart Meter data which will enable utilities looking to providenew energy services to customers.

The smart meter market

In the European smart meter market competition among manufacturers, utilities, ICT, network, remote monitoring and automation companies is already high and forecast to increase along with new participants entering the market. There are few Chinese and other Asian companies in the market at present, but they will start to make their appearance in this market over the next two years.

Smart meters are being deployed in the UK and in many other places – the USA and large portions of Europe already have wide spread deployment of Smart Meters. However, we are in the early adoption or Foundation stage in the UK - a time when lessons can be learnt by utility companies about smart metering deployment to ensure that everything is ready for a seamless mass roll-out in 2014. Smart metering is not only a huge investment costing £10.85bn in the UK over the next twenty years; it is one of the largest most complex engineering infrastructure projects in the EU.

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