The Smart Meter Roll Out

The “Smart Meter Roll-Out” is the government scheme that aims to install a total of 53 million Smart or Advanced Meters in 30 million homes and businesses between 2015 and 2020 and which is estimated to cost £10.9bn.

What is a Smart Meter?

Smart meters automatically pass correct meter readings to energy suppliers as well as supporting new functions including enabling smart appliance operation. For domestic consumers Smart Meters will be offered with an In-Home Display (IHD) linked to their smart meter, enabling householders to see what energy they use and how much it costs. This option will not be accessible for businesses due to logistical issues (not least where you’d put it in your business to make it an effective tool!). As of December 2013, there were 900 fully smart meters installed on business premises all over the UK.

What is an Advanced Meter?

The work of both Advance meter and smart meter is the same but does not integrate with ‘smart’ appliances or IHDs. as a substitute its role is purely functional in that it is capable to provide half-hourly electricity and hourly gas information that is remotely accessible by the supplier and to which the customer can have timely access.

At the end of September 2013, 508,500 Advanced Meters were installed on business premises all over 5854the UK.

Click to download official guide

How does the ‘Smart’ network concept fit together?

Unless you previously have an Advanced Meter or are soon to get one, you can expect to have your Smart Meter installed at any point between 2015 and 2020. The official line up from the government is that schedules will be “revised as lessons are learned”. Consequently it isn’t promising to forecast an accurate rollout timetable, so if you think your business would benefit from smart and advanced meter technology then the onus is on you to secure one via your energy contract.

Whilst the emptiness of information around the real dates of deployment is frustrating there is more clarity on the milestones required to ensure rollout can commence on the plan in September 2015, beneath we have put together a timetable of the key activities that are required to fulfill the goals of the Smart Meter Roll Out.

If 2020 is too long to wait for correct meter reads and invoices from your energy supplier then you can take advantage of the benefits of Advanced Meters straight away. We work with many energy suppliers who based their supply proposition on Advanced Metering and others who offer such meters as an optional extra.

If you're interested in understanding more about a smart future for your business call us on 08000488472, we would love to hear from you.