AMI & SMART METERING The case for installing 50 million smart meters as part of a smart grid appears to keep getting stronger. • To ensure consumers’ interests are protected and the full value of DSR (across networks, system balancing, avoided generation and consumer benefits) is exploited. Excellent regulatory roles but it was only on 16 December 2013 that Ofgem issued its paper ‘creating the right environment for demand-side response: next steps’ with work only now just beginning to get underway (March 2014). The intellectual, operational and commercial challenges to capture this value are immense in GB’s uniquely fragmented energy supply chain. Finalising the final GB smart meter specification is now critical and urgent. Will the final specification include all the requirements for DSR as currently perceived or will ‘over the air’ firmware upgrades future proof it? Meanwhile, according to the Government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change Quarterly release statistics on the GB rollout of smart meters for domestic properties only to date: • 95,300 smart meters (55,600 electricity meters and 39,700 gas meters) were installed in domestic properties in quarter four 2013. This compared to 92,800 smart meters installed in quarter three. A total of 295,700 have been installed to date. • 265,200 smart meters are now operating in ‘smart mode’ in domestic properties across Great Britain. This represents 0.6 per cent of all domestic meters operated by the larger suppliers. So a long way off from the 50 million and in sharp contrast to some of the previous hyperbole about the numbers already installed. However, as many commentators have previously stated, this will be a ‘marathon and not a sprint’ and consumers will not remember when their smart meter was installed but they will certainly remember if it worked or not. The GB SM rollout programme clearly has some major risks with some significant issues to solve and the timetable is immensely tight. Nevertheless, the case for installing 50 million smart meters as part of a smart grid appears to keep getting stronger. When completed and detailed points of governance are resolved it should be a fundamental part of GB’s essential infrastructure, for whosoever is in government, seeking to manage the energy trilemma of achieving security of supply, affordability and a low carbon economy. It is, therefore, somewhat surprising that despite the similar energy challenges faced in Germany, it is unlikely to proceed with a full- scale smart meter rollout as part of its declared commitment to a smart grid. Time will tell who got it right and for whom. MI ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Derek Lickorish has had an extensive career over some 43 years in the energy industry. He is Chair of the UK Government’s Fuel Poverty Advisory Group, a Non Executive Director of Secure Meters SHPL Pte and The Green Deal Finance Company Ltd. He is a member of the UK Government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change Smart Meter Customer Advisory Group, Ofgem’s Sustainable Development Advisory Group and RWEnpower Customer Stakeholder Panel.   Derek was employed by EDF Energy as their Chief Operating Officer, Customers Branch, for 5 years and was previously the Customer Service and External Affairs Director at SWEB from 1996. He commenced his career as a trainee at Seeboard in 1970.   Derek was awarded an MBE for his ‘Services to the Fuel Poor’ in The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Honours 2012.