Commentary
Parliament Powers Ahead on Carbon Emissions and Smart Meters
Apart from the slight matter of a little election in America, the past week has seen two significant parliamentary events here at home. The first was the completion of the Climate Change Bill’s progress through the House of Commons. This measure enshrines in law the government’s commitment to reduce carbon gas emissions by 80 per cent over the next 40 years. It only passed after ministers bowed to backbench pressure and agreed to include emissions from civil aviation and shipping, and as it is calculated these two sectors will account for six per cent of all carbon output by 2050 it is hard to see how the targets can be reached without their inclusion.
Meanwhile, in the House of Lords, the Minister of State at the new Department for Energy and Climate Change, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, declared a commitment to the general roll-out of smart meters by 2020, seemingly in response to a Conservative initiative. Initially there will be a two-year period during which “the issues are resolved and full details designed” and there is some concern in the industry that this may not allow enough time to resolve the many problems that still stand in the way of developing successful smart metering systems. There is a danger that if the preparation period is set in stone, a gadarene rush to install immature technology may result. Moreover, it has not yet been decided who exactly will pay for the whole exercise and how the competitive tendering process for smart metering will work.
On a more positive note, the roll-out is to be tied to the development of “feed-in tariffs” to allow surplus energy from small sale domestic microgeneration to be fed into the grid. Here again the Tories seem to be showing more enthusiasm for the idea than the government. One Labour peer argued that “putting a windmill on the side of your house would probably mean that your house flew away rather than that you generated electricity”.
Both debate on the Bill and commentary in the press revealed a degree of misunderstanding of the purpose and capability of smart meters. We have sent a note to some of the leading participants in the debate pointing out that smart meters do not of themselves provide customers with the information which would enable them to understand and manage their energy use. By contrast, we explained, home energy displays, complementing smart meters, would serve this purpose.
