Who Benefits From Smart Meters?

Posted on 13. May, 2009 by Ross in Energy Prices, Government Policy

The UK Government, like many others around the world, is steam-rollering towards the widespread installation of smart meters for utilities into 26 million homes, but who benefits more: the energy consumer or the energy supplier?

Consumers - Will Smart Meters Make A Difference?

The basic premise behind the drive for the installation of smart meters in homes and businesses is that they make it easier for consumers to monitor their energy consumption, thereby making it easier for them to save energy, carbon emissions and money. This of course relies on consumers choosing to save energy, rather than saving on some appliances so they can use more elsewhere e.g. larger TV, better computer, etc. Those that truly intend to cut back on energy use do so anyway by switching off unused electrical appliances and investing in energy efficiency, incentivised by expensive energy bills.

Smart meters have the potential to interact with appliances too: they could broadcast the current price for electricity (based on current network levels of demand) to various appliances such as dishwashers, washing machines and so on, which could be set so that they only work if the price is below a cutoff figure specified by the consumer.

This would certainly save households money, as well as massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the national emissions, but such potential may well not be realised: the specifications for smart meters are yet to be decided upon by the Government. It has already been accused of underestimating the true cost of installing the meters (

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Tags: government, smart meter, uk

2 Comments

Angela Flynn

25. May, 2009

Good points on the issue. I have been looking into smart meters wondering if they will save energy. I don’t see how they will. For most people energy use is a cost factor. For people who are energy conscious they do not need a smart meter to tell them to use less energy. Another issue I wonder about is the energy use for the meters and their cost. Most systems are proposing wireless meters. This will add to infrastructure and energy costs. Then the meters themselves are fairly expensive and it is not clear how long they will last. Current meters last about fifty years.

Steve Davies

04. Jan, 2010

I have been looking at the possibility of getting a smart electric meter,

I trained as an electronics tech in the seventies and always remember that the household meters read resistive power, ie they do not take into account the type of load on a circuit. if it is inductive or capacitive, this is the basis of power factor correction.
my point is that although these meters may be more accurate it may not be in the consumers interest, they may have been getting low readings for years and suddenly their consumption is measured accurately.

a good way of demonstating this is to get a 10 quid power monitor from Maplin and plug in a small heater, say it consumes 1 kW then also connect a desk fan, the power consumption goes up, but if you reduce the speed of the fan for a moment it will read zero.

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