If you hadn’t heard yet, on Thursday last week, OFGEM finally announced a launch date for its long awaited Smart Metering Prospectus: Wednesday, 04 August.

It’s going to be a big day for Smart Metering in the UK and I’d suggest that all those with an interest in the industry mark the date in their diaries with a big, brightly coloured highlighter.

The prospectus aims to clear up uncertainty around issues such as standardisation, the roll-out implementation framework, and consumer engagement. In keeping with the large-scale project that it has been written for, it’s expected to be rather large itself – rumour has it the prospectus is currently weighing in at a hefty 500 pages.

It’s going to make for vital reading and, once it’s released, my stoic colleagues and I intend to start ploughing through it immediately, in order to offer a response as quickly as possible.

Technorati Tags: Ofgem, smart grids, Smart metering

Three years after first announcing its intention to roll out smart meters across Great Britain, the Government has finally published plans setting out how it is going to happen. In brief, smart meters will dramatically change the way that meter readings are taken, see an end to bills based on ‘estimated’ consumption and enable householders to see exactly how much energy they are using. This final point is particularly interesting. One easily could have imagined the smart meter being in the same place as where meters currently reside; in a cupboard somewhere! However, the Government are proposing that alongside a meter, a free-standing display will be included to ‘provide real-time, near instantaneous feedback on consumption (in terms of energy, money or CO2)’. It will be interesting to see if innovative companies can link this requirement into existing technology, so the information could be displayed on a mobile phone, a television or a laptop, for example. It’s even possible to receive updates about your home’s energy usage via Twitter.

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Technorati Tags: smart grids, Smart metering