The relationship between privacy issues and smart metering was always going to be fraught with concern. As such, I was interested to read this article which includes a summary of some of the key issues being faced in Canada and Netherlands. Firstly, to Canada, where law-enforcers have monitored energy usage as part of gathering evidence against suspected marijuana growers. Clever, eh? However, in court, the judge dismissed the ammeter as a source of evidence for reasons of invasion of privacy; it transpired that the police hadn’t obtained the necessary search warrant to use it. Not such a smart move after all.
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Spectrum. Mention the word and most peoples eyes (and sometimes mine) glaze over. However, when you tell them just how much the ‘thin air’ around us is worth, they tend to open again. In 2003, the Government sold the spectrum used to operate Mobile 3G networks to operators for £22bn. Never mind that the mobile industry was almost bankrupted in the process, and that no-one is likely to pay anywhere near that much again. This is big money. The Treasury, through Ofcom, has taken notice ever since.

In today’s world of yawning budget deficits and scrambling efforts to bridge the divide, spectrum is seen as prime candidate for raising revenue. The Ministry of Defence, whose budget is of course particularly tight at the moment, jumped on the bandwagon earlier than most. Since the end of 2008, they have been busily setting out their wares. And what wares they are. MoD currently ‘owns’ 35% of all spectrum below 15 GHz, a lot which is usable for commercial operations. Commercial users haven’t previously had access to it or been able to pay for rights to use it. Since the 2005 Cave Review, plans have been in the works for it to lease large parts of its current holdings to commercial users and keep all the proceeds. Except when it actually needs to use it in times of national crisis. Then, all bets are off.

All of this has taken up much time at Intellect recently. Renting spectrum is much like renting land in many ways. The landlord needs to be good at sharing information with current and prospective tenants and be able act as a conduit for it. They need to have the ability to actively manage the land they own so that the tenant can use it effectively and, finally, they need to be able to put in place measures to stop trespassers from interfering with what the land is being used. Like land, a given piece of spectrum should ideally have one user. Its possible to share, but it gets a whole lot more complicated when you do. All of this requires resources. If Intellect members are going to rent spectrum from the MoD, they need to have the confidence that MoD can effectively manage and place a value on the spectrum that it owns. In much the same way that Ofcom currently does.

Intellect takes its role as the spectrum ‘tenants’ guardian seriously. A number of members have substantial interests in how it is allocated and used. After all, most of them manufacture devices that need access to spectrum to operate. There is a role for industry in educating the MoD on how to value its spectrum, and how to lease it in a way that actually maximises the potential uses that commercial users can make of it, thereby determining how much they will be willing to pay. Our position paper, MoD Spectrum Divestment: The Intellect Perspective, lays out how we believe MoD can optimise its release process to ensure that the UK gains maximum economic and societal benefit from what is an unprecedent release of spectrum on to the market, and how will we continue to work with them to enable maximum benefits for UK plc to be realised. Our continuing engagement with MoD on these issues is being handled by the Intellect Wireless Council. If you are an Intellect member with interests in spectrum issues, you should be involved.

Although this time of the year is known as the silly season there is clearly some smart thinking going on.

I came across this article published yesterday about ‘Smart Grid 2.0: ‘The Soft Grid’. The ‘Soft Grid’ referred to here is an emerging market segment described as the ‘countless new applications needed to improve the generation, distribution, consumption and monitoring of the Grid’. (Contrast the ’smart grid’, which, generally speaking, refers to infrastructure hardware.) The potential of this ‘intelligent software’ is noted and comparison to Apple’s approach to the third-party development of applications for its products is made.
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After just over a year since its last review and the introduction of the security schedule (to deal with data handling issues), OGC has now published their latest review of the ICT Model Agreement, version 2.3. The new version includes significant updates in the key areas of financial distress and security management, two major concerns for Intellect (read our press release for more info)

So why is this important? Well, inevitably industry and the public sector have two different views of what a contract should look like, with each side trying to minimise its risks and safeguard itself as much as possible. For example, there may be unrealistic trigger clauses that if applied would only escalate the situation manifold and actually lead to what the authority sought to avoid in the first place: a failed project! The review of the Financial Distress schedule for example took this into account in its changes.
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Yesterday, the Department for Energy and Climate Change’s consultation on smart metering for electricity and gas closed. As consumer groups and energy companies took to the airwaves, I expect the printers at 3 Whitehall Place were working overtime as a no-doubt plethora of responses from a range of interested parties were being churned out to make a long summer reading list for the officials involved.

Amongst others, the Energy Networks Association, and the Energy Retail Association have submitted responses urging the Government to make decisions quickly. This is a view that I agree with. Talking to Intellect’s members, there is no doubt there is genuine enthusiasm and excitement with regard to the roll-out of smart meters. As such, the Government’s response to this consultation will be eagerly awaited.

So what did Intellect’s response say?
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