The Smart Meter Revolution

By Author: Daniel Higgins
Total Articles: 9
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The European Parliament has announced that all existing electricity and gas meters are to be phased out and replaced with more high-tech Smart Meters. All EU member states will be looking to achieve a minimum of eighty per cent Smart Meter coverage by 2020.

Great Britain has announced that it is backing the process all the way and aims to have every house in Britain equipped with a new Smart Meter within the next ten years. Here we take a look at what Smart Meters do, and why the world is so keen to make the switch..

1. Rather than just receiving one value every month or quarter from a standard gas or electric meter, you will now be able to receive energy consumption information at any time of day using your new Smart Meter, allowing you to better monitor your energy use.

2. The meters pass details of your power consumption back to your supplier so that they can monitor your power use. This means an end to estimated bills and the overcharging that can result with this method of meter reading..

3. As a result, energy companies will need to employ fewer staff: no more meter readers, and fewer call centre ...
... staff needed to deal with estimated bill complaints. This could well lead to energy price cuts across the board as companies pass savings onto their customers.

4. The real advantage to consumers is the ability of the new Smart Meter to let you know exactly how you use your gas and electricity. It comes with a display unit that keeps you constantly updated with your usage. This allows consumers to monitor their energy consumption and better see where they can make savings by changing their energy usage behaviour.

5. Gas and electricity companies are keen to use this new technology as it means a far more streamlined and cheaper system for them to run than the current system, It allows companies to carry out a whole range of services remotely, including monitoring the quality of power supplied, looking for power being used illegally, checking for faults and black outs, changing consumer billing plans and monitoring customer usage information.

Smart Meters are just the first step required in transforming our energy supply system in readiness for the switch to renewable and alternative energy sources. The current meter system is simply not flexible enough to deal with supplies that may be sourced from a variety of power sources.

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