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Smart Meters: Why wait until 2019?

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DECC’s Smart Metering Implementation Programme aims to install new metering systems in 30 million GB homes between 2014 and 2019. But why wait?

According to DECC’s Impact Assessment, each consumer will benefit by £22 per year through Demand Side Response (DSR) – we’ll simply use less energy because we can see what it is costing us on the In-Home Display.

There are also benefits to the energy suppliers (British Gas, E.on and the rest of the Big Six, plus some smaller outfits) – suppliers won’t have to visit homes as frequently and can expect a reduction in call centre volume.

However, as the Public Accounts Committee has highlighted, the suppliers may not pass these benefits on to their customers. Indeed, the Impact Assessment does not assume that consumers will receive any of this benefit.

So, as a consumer, why not arrange for your DSR benefit earlier? Conveniently, many of the energy suppliers offer electricity consumption displays, and they do this for free. In 2012 you can start to benefit, perhaps 7 years before the DECC programme catches up with you. OK, so gas consumption displays are harder to come by, but they do exist. Anyway, managing your consumption of gas without a display is very simple: make sure that the heating isn’t on when you’re not at home; turn the thermostat down a degree or two. Then check your bills against the same quarter in the previous year to see what energy – not cost – you have saved.

DECC’s smart meters will be free when they are eventually installed, but so are many of the electricity consumption displays that you can get today. Why wait?


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