BBC Radio 4
In the 12th April 2010 episode of BBC Radio 4’s Click On programme there was a feature covering Smart Meters and the emerging Smart Grid.
Currently, this episode of Click On (Episode 3, Series 6) is still available to listen to on the BBC web site.
Junior school children leaving school
Partnership for Schools (PfS) will be responsible for rolling out the display meters projects to all British schools. The selected private sector partner will be British Gas.
From this month (January 2010) schools should be able to sign up to receive one of these meters at a new web site to be published by PfS.
The meters will provide data on energy usage for the whole school site. This can then be made available to students, staff and parents.
If schools are interested in finding out exactly where their electricity is being used, down to the individual socket or distribution board level, they would need to install further smart meters. Adding smart meters with switching would allow for full control of the schools electricity spend.
The Carbon Trust estimates that the behavioral changes accompanying the installation of simple smart meters can bring 10-15% reductions in electricity consumed. Using a full system of smart meters and switches throughout the school could bring that saving up to 37%.
We we delighted when the government announced the £8 billion scheme to put a smart meter in every home.
Lord Hunt, the Energy Minister, said: “Smart meters will put the power in people’s hands, enabling us all to control how much energy we use, cut emissions and cut bills.”
We couldn’t agree more. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.
Originally, the government told us that the 47 million smart meters would be fitted free to 26 million properties by 2020 saving on average 10% of the electricity used.
Earlier this week, however, it emerged in official documents that the energy providers would be responsible for fitting the smart meters and that they would be allowed to recoup the £340 installation cost from their customers.
Martyn Hocking, spokesman for Which, said: “We’re concerned that consumers could be saddled with the entire multi-billion pound bill for a project that’s going to save the industry hundreds of millions of pounds a year.”
Somehow, that doesn’t seem fair.
Utility company smart meters
BBC Breakfast Time has shown us the shape of things to come, with a report on domestic energy smart metering.
The report shows that if you can measure it you can save it, despite the multi-million pound roll-out cost of fitting a meter in every home by 2020.
You can read about the new feature in your home at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8389880.stm. Or if you’d like to see the TV feature, just go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer – it went out on Wednesday 2nd December at about 7.23am.