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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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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An interesting posting appeared on Google’s public policy blog yesterday which once again set out not only their support for smart meters but what they are doing to better leverage their use. One key part of this is the Google PowerMeter. In brief, it will enable users to access information about their own energy use on their iGoogle home page. This reminds me of an earlier posting which highlighted that it is possible to receive updates about your home’s energy use via Twitter.
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I just came across this story about the rollout of smart meters in New Zealand. However, my use of the word ‘smart’ is perhaps misleading, given that some energy companies over there are being lambasted for installing ‘dumb meters’.

In the words of one consumer, talking about his new meter, ‘it has not made any difference to my life whatsoever, except I think my power bill is a little bit higher than it used to me’. He goes on, noting that it is ‘smartly taking more of [his] cash’.

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No. Well, that’s the answer according to Ernst & Young. Let me explain.

As noted last week on this blog, the Government published a variety of documents setting out proposals for the roll-out of smart meters across Britain; their estimated cost of this huge undertaking is £7bn - £9bn. However, according to E&Y’s calculations, the true cost is £13.4bn (according to The Times, this works out at £515 per household). To ensure buy-in from the public (and also the media), it will be crucial to ensure that the full cost of roll-out is known (including manufacturing, installation and maintenance costs etc) – and kept under control.