After recent announcements by the UK government, the media is awash with news on smart meters, the smart grid and how the landscape of the UK’s energy market will totally change by 2020. So, what does this all mean? Well, a smart meter shows you how much energy you are using at any one time and can provide details on how much usage is costing. This will mean the end of estimated billing as exact current and historical usage will be logged accurately.

When smart meters become ubiquitous, suppliers and regional distributers will have a much better understanding of how much electricity is being used at any point in time. Gaining this insight into electricity usage using the technology of smart meters is part of the idea behind the smart grid - An ‘intelligent’ power grid, where electricity can be supplied to consumers more efficiently by communicating information between the grid and the meters. There is much more to the smart grid than the brief summary here, for more resources see the end of this article.

Smart meters and the smart grid are an excellent way to better understand our electricity usage but, and it is a big but, I do not feel they do enough to make energy visible to us and influence our behaviour on a daily basis. Sure, you have a small screen that shows you usage but, if this smart meter sits in your cupboard, behind all that stuff (read: clutter) you have to move every time you need to get a meter reading, are you really going to look at it all that often? If you did look at it, is it going to engage you? Influence your behaviour to reduce energy?

The Energy Saving Trust makes the point: “Having good, well designed displays accompanying smart meters is key to the objective of saving energy, saving carbon, saving money for householders” Ben Castle, Energy Saving Trust. (Covered by a BBC News article you can read here). If we ensure that in addition to smart meters we have live energy displays then we can really start saving some energy, money and reducing our impact on the environment. It all starts with people. You can have all the technology in the world behind a power grid, but if people are not engaged enough to turn things off or turn down a thermostat then savings will be a fraction of what they could be.

- Aaron

Resources:

More about the smart grid:  http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/ (Cool animations)

and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_grid

More on smart meters in the UK: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8389880.stm

Energy Saving Trust: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/