Smart meters

Major national project

Smart meter

The rollout of smart meters will be a major national project. It will involve a visit to every home and many businesses in Great Britain, and the replacement of around 53 million gas and electricity meters.

Smart meters can pave the way for a transformation in the way energy is supplied and used.

They will provide consumers with near real-time information about energy use, and more accurate bills. 
 

 

 

19 January 2012: Open letter: Possible exemption for all suppliers from the Smart Meters roll-out obligation

Further to the open letter of 22 December 2011, the Minister for Energy has written to stakeholders seeking views on a possible exemption for all suppliers from the smart meter roll-out obligation in limited circumstances. The Smart Meter Programme would like the hear the views of interested parties on the issues set out in this letter. As a first step, we would like to gather further evidence, in response to the questions set out in Annex A by 30 January 2012. We would also welcome views on the policy proposal set out in the letter by 13 February 2012. Questions are at Annex B.


23 December 2011: Smart Meters Implementation Programme revised delivery plan published

On 23 December 2011, the Government published the revised Delivery Plan for the Smart Metering Implementation Programme, describing key activities to 2014.
This takes account of responses received from a number of recent consultations and ongoing engagement with external delivery partners.


22 December 2011: Open letter: possible exemption for small suppliers from the smart meters roll-out obligation

The Minister for Energy written to stakeholders seeking views on a possible exemption for small suppliers from the smart meter roll-out obligation in limited circumstances. The Smart Meters Programme would like to hear the views of interested parties on the issues set out in this letter. As a first step, we would like to gather further evidence, in response to the questions in Annex A, by 13 January 2012. We would also welcome views on the policy proposal set out in the letter, by 27 January 2012. Questions are set out at Annex B.


August 2011: Smart Metering Implementation Programme consultations launched and call for evidence issued

On 30 March 2011, the Government and Ofgem jointly published the response to the Smart Metering Implementation Programme: prospectus. This set out conclusions about the approach to be taken to developing the regulatory framework for the roll-out of smart meters.

Building on those conclusions the Government has published two consultations and a call for evidence, as well as two updated Impact Assessments.

Full details are available on the Smart Metering Implementation Programme consultations page.


March 2011: Response to the Prospectus consultation

On 30 March 2011, the Government and Ofgem jointly published the Government’s response to the Smart Meter Prospectus.

The document sets out the Government's conclusions in response to the questions asked in the prospectus. It also describes the Government’s approach to updating consumer protections so they remain relevant for the smart world, including data access rules.

The prospectus response and supporting material can be found on the Smart Metering Implementation Programme: prospectus web page.


Better use of energy

The information provided by smart meters will help consumers to better manage and reduce energy use and potentially save money, and switching between suppliers will be smoother and faster. Energy suppliers will be able to offer a wider range of services and tariffs to manage their customer relationships better. Smart meters will also be an important step towards the development of a smart grid, delivering improved network efficiency and responsiveness.

Smart meters will play an important role in our transition to a low-carbon economy. They will help us meet some of the long-term challenges we face in ensuring Great Britain has an affordable, secure and sustainable energy supply.

A major central programme is required to design and implement new cross-industry arrangements for smart metering, in coordination with the change programmes industry participants will need to implement themselves. Ofgem E-Serve has managed, on behalf of DECC, the policy design phase of this central programme. This has been successfully completed and the central programme is now moving to implement this detailed policy design.

DECC will be directly responsible for managing this phase of the central smart metering programme. This is appropriate given the scale of the programme, the importance of government accountability for its delivery and because the legal powers sit principally with the Secretary of State. These new arrangements were announced late last year and took effect from April 2011.

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