If customers knew when peak consumption times were and could save money by a avoiding or reducing use at those times, you could start to reduce peaks of demand - the times when energy becomes really costly and network failures can occur because of over demand.

Smart meters could allow consumers to benefit from acting intelligently - and there would be a huge public benefit in making demand more manageable. Presumably if a significant number of consumers decided, for instance, not to do their washing or cook their supper between 5pm and 6pm (and moved these activities to a less busy time) - and were rewarded for that - then energy peaks could be ameliorated and we could make better use of the capacity we have.

The analogy is with congestion - we should be looking for ways to make better use of the electricity generating capacity available over a 24 hour period in the same way that we aim to encourage road users not to all travel at the same time.

IMServ

Response from IMServ (185KB)

Kermode, N.

I would like to restrict my comments to the issue of user displays.

I purchased an Electrisave meter some time ago and have found it an extremely valuable tool to reduce energy consumption in our house. This tends to work most effectively as a means of detecting forgotten appliances such as heaters left on, or lights in unused rooms. One quickly learns what the house is expected to be running at, and therefore significant departures can be quickly spotted and the offending item turned off.

We have the device in the kitchen and it has generated significant comment from visitors. As a direct result I know of 3 other people who have bought them in the last 3 months.

I would suggest however that the present generation of devices lack an important feature in that they do not log consumption. As a result baseload use is more difficult to determine, and therefore small parasitic loads such as chargers go undetected. Given the prevalence of wireless devices in the home the opportunity to log signals onto PCs or laptops (and thereby display results graphically) cannot be overlooked.

You posed a question as to who should install the devices. I would suggest that they should be offered to householders as a means to encourage their engagement in the process. Imposing devices on householders should be avoided, and installation by the utility may be unpopular and appear to be spying. The opportunity to have them fitted by tradesmen should be offered, but is likely to result in less public participation and engagement. All in all I would urge that they are made simple enough for anybody to install, just as the Electrisave is.

I would suggest that the devices should, however, be imposed on retail premises, and that the display should be visible to the premises' customers.

I hope the above points are of use to you, but please contact me if you would like to discuss this further,