The EED, now the subject of haggling by the European Parliament and the European Council of EU governments, would otherwise fail to achieve its main aim of helping the EU to reduce its primary energy consumption by 20% by 2020, claimed the European Smart Metering Industry Group (Esmig).
Esmig said that moves by MEPs and EU governments to water down the European Commission’s original EED proposal put at risk an EU-wide roll-out of smart meters and their full claimed benefits. “If we don’t do it now, we are going to lose the chance,” said John Harris, European vice-president and head of regulatory affairs at the meter firm Landis & Gyr and chairman of an Esmig working group.
The EU’s Danish presidency has committed itself to brokering an EED agreement by the end of its rotating six-month presidency at the end of June. Trialogues are under way between the EU institutions.
The UK’s government has opposed the Commission, but Howard Porter, chief executive of the UK electrical industry organisation Beama and Esmig’s international alliances director, told UW that the reason was unclear as the government’s smart meter plans correspond almost exactly to the Commission’s approach.
Porter will today travel to Brussels with three senior officials from the department of energy and climate change to try to win approval from the Commission for Decc’s smart meter strategy.
By Vic Wyman