British smart meter "plan" suffered consumer "martyrdom"

Will British consumers accept smart meters as the government expects to lower their energy costs? According to a report of the National Audit Office (NAO) of the United Kingdom, the government should consider this issue well before implementing a nationwide smart metering program. The report reminded the UK's Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to fully deploy smart meters from 2014 to 2019. Before the project invested 11.3 billion euros (about 18 billion U.S. dollars), there were still "important risks" to be solved.

Amyas Morse, head of NAO, stated that "the benefits of this key technical and supporting business continue to be unclear, and there is not yet sufficient evidence to explain the space and time cycle of consumer behavior change and cost reduction in the UK."

Energy suppliers are also expected to bear the cost of installing smart meters, and then pass on cost reductions and energy savings to consumers. Energy companies will be able to read meter data remotely and provide time-of-use price discounts for non-peak hours. According to DECC, smart metering will be an important step towards intelligent energy networks. Smart energy grids will better manage the needs of the entire power system and new energy sources such as wind and solar energy.

The DECC expects that smart meters will generate €18.6 billion (approximately $30 billion) in benefits by 2030, while the NAO report believes that it is not yet clear how many meters will be needed to help consumers change their energy usage habits. The report points out that DECC also needs a set of strategies to achieve better benefits and strategies to promote consumer participation. The NAO report also indicates that the time for solving the risk problem given in the design process is very limited, and the procurement and testing time will be more than expected; the system must be flexible enough to minimize the risk of old equipment in the future; DECC remains in place until the full deployment work is started. There are many metrology system security tasks that need to be completed. Morse believes that "such large-scale projects themselves must bear the corresponding risks. In the process, we must make clear the decision points, that is, the relevant departments must audit consumer costs, benefits and risks, and to determine whether to implement or change the original plan. direction".