OPINION: Smart meters - a foundation for renewables integration
Monday 23 March 2009
 |
| Dave Robinson says industry needs a roadmap for the rollout of smart meters up to 2020 |
Dave Robinson, market development manager at Landis+Gyr, discusses why smart meters could be essential for the government's 2020 renewable energy ambitions.
The government recently announced its proposals for a £4.7 billion upgrade of the national grid, the stated rationale for which is "to accommodate new power generation."
A significant percentage of this - 35 GW - is envisioned as coming from renewable resources.
This, of course, is to be entirely commended. The problems with the current grid are well documented. The system is already creaking with age, while delays in connecting to it are currently estimated to stretch back to 2019 in some parts of the country.
More importantly however, today's grid is no longer ‘fit for purpose'.
When it was set up after the Second World War, the prime consideration was for energy stability, not efficiency. As a result today's system is entirely incapable of managing the huge flows of electricity that characterise the 21st century market. The government's plan will do much to address all of this.
The proposals mask a wider problem, though. A separate aim of the government is to generate 30% of its electricity from renewable resources by 2020 and the implication is clearly that the upgrades to the grid will drive this. However, on their own they are unlikely to be enough.
What is needed is a nationwide roll-out of smart meters; small, domestic pieces of equipment that will underpin a smart grid.
By providing a two way flow of information between the home and the power provider, meters make possible the demand-side management utilities will need to balance intermittent renewable resources with more traditional forms of energy.
Without them, sources of energy such as wind and solar won't be efficiently integrated into the modern grid and will for the most part be side-lined.
Micropower
Without them, sources of energy such as wind and solar won't be efficiently integrated into the modern grid.
The importance of meters to renewables stretches further however. The scale of the 2020 target suggests that conventional, large-scale technologies will need to be supplemented by other forms of clean energy.
The signs from government intimate that microgeneration will provide the missing piece of the jigsaw, with households injecting their residual energy (left over from domestic combined heat and power, small wind and photovoltaic technologies) to the grid.
As an added bonus this will create a tangible (and financial) way for consumers to see the impacts of their home generation.
The government has taken the first steps towards smart metering with its pledge that every home will have one by 2020. What it has not done however, is to inform the industry of how it plans to translate this into an actual roadmap for adoption.
Until it does so the future of metering, and with it the integration of many forms of renewable energy, will be left in the dark.
Dave Robinson is the market development manager of Landis+Gyr, one of the world's largest smart meter manufacturers.
Print
