The Government's recent announcement on the deployment of
smart meters officially marks a new phase in the UK's fight against
climate change,writes Omar Abbosh, Accenture's managing
director, resources for the UK and Ireland.
After years during which attention has been focused on the
supply side of the energy debate and the search for low carbon
alternatives, smart meters will now shift efforts to the demand
side of the equation. But as we gear up to a large roll out of
end-user technology, we must not forget that smart meters should be
seen as just one part of a larger and more ambitious investment in
a new energy transmission infrastructure, at the heart of which
will be smart grids.
The Government's smart meter initiative could provide the UK
with one of the most advanced means of monitoring and managing
energy demand. It should also reduce the cost of meter reading,
allow utilities to offer a range of new services, and ensure that
greater revenues are not entirely dependent on greater levels of
energy consumption. Smart meters therefore pose a challenge. Will
utilities be able to manage the volume of real time data generated?
Will they adapt to a less commoditized, more bespoke business
model, requiring new customer service skills and fresh investment
in CRM technology? Will other players from outside the utilities
sector enter the market for valued added services?
Crucial to the success of the smart meter plans will be the
nature of the chosen roll out. 48 million devices will have to be
installed in 26 million homes. Today's competitive market suggest
that utility companies should be free to install meters in their
own customers' premises. Others fear this could lock customers in
as well as slow down the process. Instead of multiple utilities
installing meters in every street, they prefer single entities
being given responsibility for blanket roll outs in each
region.
And once the meters are installed, a central communications hub
will be required to hold and share meter data between utilities.
This central platform will support exchange information between
otherwise separate networks of meters, enabling consumers to switch
supplier without restriction.
Our migration to a low carbon economy, however, needs far more
than smart meters. We need to move to a world of distributed
energy, in which millions of homes and businesses generate their
own energy and sell it back to the energy pool; in which they can
charge up the electric vehicles the Government hopes we be driving.
We need urban environments that can respond in real time to energy
availability by stimulating real time changes in consumers'
behaviour, whether it's the time they drive and charge their
electric cars, or the way they use household appliances.
Smart grids will not require a rip and replace of today's
electricity grid. Instead, today's grid will be transformed with
intelligent devices, sensors and data systems to manage demand and
supply dynamically. But above all, smart grids require new levels
of collaboration between the private and public sectors, in
particular, between utilities and the metropolitan authorities who
will pioneer this technology as part of smart cities. We calculate
that by working together in cities, the private and public sectors
can bring forward the breakeven point of smart grid investments by
five years. Those five years will make the difference between
hitting and missing our greenhouse gas targets.