Five thousand smart meters are being installed in homes and businesses across London as its first smart meter trials get uder way.
The smart meter trials, being led by EDF Energy, are part of Low Carbon London, a consortium of partners led by UK Power Networks funded by £24.9million from Ofgem’s Low Carbon Networks Fund, plus £4.6million from the electricity network operator.
EDF Energy customers in the pilot zones are being offered the first 500 smart meters, extending later next year to EDF Energy customers in the ten low carbon zones and in the Green Enterprise District, an initiative of the mayor of London, Boris Johnson.
In the form proposed householders will be able to see (minute by minute If they wish) how much electricity they are using, in any appliance and how much it costs, and will no longer receive estimated billing from energy suppliers Every home in Britain is due to receive a smart meter in the next decade as part of the national rollout starting in 2014.
As the owner and operator of the electricity network across London, the South East and the East of England, UK Power Networks is working with EDF Energy on the Low Carbon London smart meter trial to understand the impact they will have on its electricity network and on decarbonising London’s electricity system.
The Mayor has invested £3million in the ten low carbon zones. These ten zones are pioneering ways to engage with residents, communities and businesses in transforming the carbon footprint of neighbourhoods by retrofitting activity, helping to cut energy use and fuel bills. These areas are working to reduce their emissions by 20.12 per cent by 2012. It is estimated that so far over 8000 tonnes of CO2 emissions have been saved across the zones, 4200 homes have been retrofitted and 10,000 households and 400 businesses worked with on reducing their carbon footprint. The programme aims to include 55000 homes by May 2012 and hundreds of public buildings. With 80 per cent of carbon emissions in London coming from buildings, this activity is necessary to meet carbon emission targets.
Initially the trials will monitor the impact that groups of customers using smart meters will have on the pattern of electricity use at specific substations. After a few months the participants will be offered innovative electricity tariffs by the supplier, EDF Energy, to test whether consumers will reduce demand or move it to a different time of day when they have a chance to reduce their energy costs by taking advantage of off-peak or renewable electricity charges.
Participants in the trials will be offered lifestyle tariffs to test whether consumers will delay using non-essential appliances at peak times, such as dishwashers, to save money. As peak demand drives investment in the electricity network, reducing the peaks would make better use of network capacity and reduce national dependence on fossil-fuelled generation. In turn that could reduce or delay the need for multi-million pound investments in the electricity network to keep pace with peaks in demand, for example, resulting in fewer roads being excavated to lay new infrastructure and cables.
Later in the trials, wind-twinning tariffs will be trialled with a small number of customers to find out if consumers want to take advantage of cheaper electricity when local or national wind generation output is high and reduce use of non-essential appliances when wind power is in short supply.
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