Recently, we looked at the impact of AI on the SMETS 2 rollout for suppliers; we discussed the need for customer consent to share retrieved data, the potential benefits they could receive following a smart meter upgrade and the challenges we could anticipate suppliers experiencing during the rollout. Now, we will look further into expected and future applications of SMETS2 technology, which will benefit the customer and aim to resolve old challenges following the initial smart meter initiatives.
The State of Play
The ongoing rollout of SMETS2 meters is expected to run until the end of 2025. This rollout subjects all suppliers to legally binding installation targets and was set about in 2021 following the surpassed deadline of the original obligation. This obligation ensures suppliers use ‘all reasonable steps’ to roll out smart metering to their domestic and small non-domestic customer base. The impact of this prolonged rollout has resulted in the loss of customer trust, which has also been exacerbated by the installation of non-communicating smart meters due to poor signal coverage (estimated to make up 12%).
This next phase of the rollout will work to correct these past issues that previously limited customer buy-in. The planned upgrade from the 2G/3G network, driven by the Smart DCC (Data Communications Company), will improve the signal coverage of smart meters and help eliminate issues around outdated or non-communicating meters. We foresee that this upgrade could help to reassure customers who feel that before any new advancements are made, the priority must be that all currently installed devices are working and communicating as intended. This potential upgrade could not only rectify long-standing problems with connectivity but also encourage those disenfranchised to buy into new smart metering technologies which rely upon customer consent.
What future benefits could SMETS2 meters bring to customers?
We have already seen that the introduction of SMETS2 meters has brought many customer benefits. These include ease of switching, more accurate billing, and, more recently, new wave tariffs geared towards helping customers save on their energy bills. Modern tariffs, such as time of use and EV agreements, are reliant upon accurately receiving half-hourly readings, which are better supported by the newer SMETS2 industry standard.
Future benefits could be achieved through the development of a digital spine which would act as an organisation’s digital ecosystem, connecting different systems, applications and data sources. This centralised source would receive energy usage data from SMETS2 meters and could allow suppliers to create a flexible, agile, and scalable foundation for digital transformation initiatives. However, customer data could only be transformed after gaining individual consent from customers.
Enhancing smart metering capabilities could bring immediate benefits to customers. Initially, customers could access advanced appliance-level billing, which may encourage usage changes that could result in a financial benefit. Every active household appliance has a unique usage signature that can be used to highlight specific usage data for the customer in their monthly bill. Should the customer provide consent to their supplier to accessing and centralising their usage information, we could see this access transform into a more interactive network. Through a device’s unique usage signature, there is the capability for SMETS2 meters to identify non-critical devices that are on standby and remotely turn these off during peak consumption times when wholesale energy costs are at their highest. This would dramatically reduce the cost of energy across the entire country, resulting in lower tariff prices.
Standardising smart metering with the rollout of SMETS2 meters will bring improved resource efficiency to the utilities industry and enhance customer experience. When used resourcefully, SMETS2 meters already allow insights to be retrieved for both the benefit of the supplier and the customer, which allows for more transparency around accurate billing and the environmental impact of usage. In the future, however, we expect to see the industry taking further advantage of the capabilities that SMETS2 meters can provide with the customer’s consent. With new advances, there is the opportunity to create an interactive smart space for suppliers and customers while accelerating the UK’s ability to reach Net Zero.
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