UK smart meter rollout – bungled, woeful, promising or successful?

Ten years on from the official start of the UK smart meter rollout and opinions are mixed on its impact so far.

In a new study the London-based service monitoring company DevicePilot has solicited the views of a cross-section of industry players – and as may be expected there is a consensus of opinion on some areas but division on others.

Indeed the assessment of the first decade of smart meters ranges from confident optimism to abject despair. Some contributors describe smart meters as “the keystone of the UK’s net zero ambitions” but others believe they have been “an expensive distraction”.

In terms of consensus, the report notes a clear thread in the comments provided that smart meters have a huge potential to shape the UK’s sustainability efforts, even if this hasn’t happened as fast or as smoothly as hoped and is yet to be fully realised.

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“The original vision of an intelligent system enabling optimisation of energy demand and supply at all levels will bring benefits,” said Professor John Loughhead, former advisor to the government energy department.

However, he added that smart meters have been “far less successful than anticipated by this point” and that the benefits will “happen significantly later than promised”.

Smart meter benefits

Contributors also spoke about how smart meters could bring benefits to both the grid and consumers alike. Estimates are that bill savings for consumers can be up to 20%.

“The obvious benefits are the energy savings and the ability to shift energy usage away from peak times. Behind the scenes they have a number of other big advantages. Grid flexibility is a real game changer,” said Chris Barlow, Director of Innovation at Smart DCC.

John Miller, head of smart rollout at British Gas concurred: “Smart metering technology allows the industry to plan for the future, understanding supply and demand needs with greater accuracy and matching those needs to sustainable energy solutions.”

Juliet Davenport, founder of Good Energy Group, noted that while smart meters have brought some awareness, the actual energy savings are minimal to date.

“Smart meters are an important first step … but it will be the introduction of market half-hourly settlement and more flexible time of use tariffs that will deliver the most impact.”

Rollout issues

Multiple contributors highlighted that reliability, security and usability issues have impeded smart meter usage and trust to date. It also appears that many of the perceived issues/faults with smart meters can be traced back to the initial rollout and some of the decisions made at that time when the energy landscape was very different.

“The rollout in the UK has been retailer led unlike almost all other nations. This has made it more customer centric, hence an energy efficiency not seen in other countries. However, it has been very inefficient in installation terms,” said Patrick Caiger-Smith, chairman at geo (Green Energy Options).

Chi Onwurah, Newcastle Upon Tyne MP and shadow minister for Science, Research & Innovation, described the rollout as “botched”’

“The government wanted to ‘leave it to the market’ which has resulted in infrastructure duplication and confusing changes of standards which have affected those on pay-as-you-go meters most,” she said.

Looking ahead

Several contributors noted that the uptake of smart meters will go hand-in-hand with increased EV use.

“It is clear that future decarbonisation of the economy will be heavily dependent on the electrification of heating and transport. As the smart meter infrastructure is established, innovative companies will respond with new business models that offer consumers choices based on the electric heating and EV charging technologies in their homes,” said Muiris Flynn, CTO at Glen Dimplex.

Nick Hunn, CTO at WiFore Consulting, said that smart meters are an important component of the country’s future energy security and need to be designed and used as an integral part of it.

“As we move to more renewables, distributed storage and an all-electric future, energy becomes a two-way process. That needs a completely different approach to meter design.”

Summing up the review, Pilgrim Beart, CEO at DevicePilot, said that after a stuttered start, he expects smart meter uptake among the general public to soon skyrocket as people look for new ways to reduce their carbon footprint.

“To make renewables work, we need to make smart energy work. Consumer devices need to respond to the availability of energy on the grid, and only then can households contribute to net zero. Smart meters are the principal way of making this two way relationship work.”