The British government announced plans this week to put “smart meters” in every home by the end of the next decade.
Smart meters monitor energy consumption on a continuous basis. The devices also communicate that information directly to utilities, cutting out the need for staffs to visit individual homes to read meters.
The cost of the meters and installation would be as much as 9 billion pounds — or nearly $14 billion — and probably would be borne by electricity consumers, Colette Lewiner, the head of energy practice at the French consulting firm Capgemini, told Green Inc.
“These investments are usually funded by the utilities that are allowed to increase their distribution tariffs paid by the end customers,” Ms. Lewiner wrote in an e-mail message. “However, thanks to the energy savings that are enabled by theses new meters, the customers will save money on their bills and over time it would become cost neutral for them,” she wrote.
Smart meters could fundamentally change the way Britons consume electricity, by allowing utilities to offer special rates for running energy-hungry appliances — like dishwashers and laundry machines — during periods when power is plentiful.
That, in turn, could reduce total energy demand.
More judicious use of power would mean utilities “need to build less peak-hour plants that are usually gas-fired plants,” wrote Ms. Lewiner.
The meters also could encourage homeowners to install more solar panels and wind power devices on their homes because they would be able to see – in real time – the amount of electricity they are producing, consuming or selling to the grid.
“The meters most of us have in our homes were designed for a different age, before climate change,” Ed Miliband, Britain’s energy and climate change secretary, said this week. “Now we need to get smarter with our energy,” he said.
In fact, smart meters have been around since at least 1990 when they were introduced as way of making billing easier, according to Landis+Gyr, a British company that manufactures the devices.
“It’s been a long time in coming,” said Stephen Cunningham, the chief executive of Landis+Gyr for the Britain and Ireland, referring to the British government’s announcement this week.
Forecasts by Capgemini show that by 2012 between 25 and 40 percent of homes in Europe will be equipped with smart meters, compared to the current 6 percent.