While the actual implementation schedule for smart meters in the UK is still unknown, and likely to remain so for some time, what is clear is that meters that have the capability to gather and return large amounts of data will increasingly make their way into consumers’ homes over the next few years.
Standardisation and regulation of the use of this data may lead the implementation, as the plans for the smart meter implementation programme and the creation of the Data Communications Company (DCC) would like, or usage rules and guidelines may continually play catch-up with the activities of utilities. In either case, there are opportunities for utilities and third parties to provide added services to consumers.
The first and foremost use of data from a smart meter is obviously billing. What is less understood is how little data is required to meet this requirement. At present, billing uses a single reading per billing cycle, usually quarterly, and the system copes if these are missing from some cycles.
The expectations of smart metering in this area are mainly limited to two improvements. First, that billing can move to a monthly cycle, with an accurate read each time, and second that all customers will be able to select multi-rate time-of-use tariffs. Many people assume that such tariffs require the billing company to have the full half-hour data of 48 readings per day, or about 1,500 per month, but the actual requirement is considerably lower.
Only an accumulated energy use within each tariff band is required for each billing period, the same as is gathered now for tariffs such as Economy 7. At a likely four rates per day, the increase in data from single rate quarterly billing to monthly time-of-use billing is only from four readings a year to 48 (four per month).
As an extension to the formal bill, another benefit of smart metering is to allow the householder to see how energy use, and hence the next bill, is accumulating. It is surprisingly difficult to present this information in a meaningful and relevant way, but if we restrict ourselves to looking at the issue of energy use and the cost of that energy, it provides an interesting insight into the options for using meter data.
There are three main routes for energy usage data to be presented back to a user, with a fourth potentially available in the UK DCC-based market. In all cases, tariff information (time of day bands and rates) and billing period information (start and end dates) is required to be added to the standard consumption data. This enables the householder to be provided with continuously up-to-date information on the current period, such as: total energy used; energy used in each tariff band; total cost of energy used; and cost of energy used in each tariff band.
The first and simplest is additional information displayed on the meter itself. This seems to be a standard feature of smart meters but is reliant on the addition tariff and period data being updated on the meter.
The second option, and a key part of the UK proposal, is that this information is available, along with a real-time power use figure, on an in-home display (IHD) or other consumer device. The IHD would communicate with the smart meter over a home network, and a WiFi gateway could link the meter to a large wireless network in the house for access by other devices.
This provides an opportunity for a differentiation of service, with different energy suppliers able to provide their own interpretation and display of data, and possibly additional features. In theory, it could also allow third parties to use the information for their own devices or services in the home.
Significant commercial and security issues arise in making such services work over a home network, where the meter may have been installed by one utility, supply is from a second, and a householder wishes to use a third party to provide usage analysis. It is likely that the installing utility will have an initial advantage, in that such value-added services may be impossible from other parties until industry frameworks are in place, and even then the supplying utility may have distinct advantages over third party suppliers.
In the third option, data from the meter is transferred back to the energy supplier over the wide area network (Wan). This is then analysed and presented to the householder via a website or a mobile application accessing the utility’s servers. This is a simple way to add services, because the communications links will all be in place already, and additional data such as tariff and customer profile will be readily available at the utility.
However, typical meter connections to the wide area network are low data capacity and the cost of transferring data is high, so utilities will need to recover these additional costs through value-added services or higher rates. It is also clear that this model does not provide an easy route for third parties to provide services, although providing a web-based data feed for external parties to provide presentation solutions (such as an iPad app) is not difficult, but is only likely to be provided if required by regulation.
To overcome the issues in access to data via the wide area, albeit mostly to simplify the process of customer switching, the UK programme includes the provision of a centrally run data clearing house, the DCC.
In theory, this will also allow third party services to use the data, but significant questions remain. What if my utility only wants basic billing data from the meter (and hence only pays for that amount), but as a householder I wish to access and use considerably more meter data through a third party cloud service? Will the DCC be capable not just of supporting multiple users for the same meter data, but allowing and correctly accounting for access to separate but overlapping datasets from each meter?
We have looked at the four main routes by which data can be presented to a consumer, but there is an interesting fifth option. Assuming a householder can access meter data directly using the home area network, there is no reason they cannot submit this to a provider of services over the internet. This is the standard approach for all of the pre-smart metering clip-on energy devices that allow upload to a web service. In such a model, both the utility and the DCC are removed from the data chain, a feature that is appealing to consumers who have a distrust of both central government services and utilities.
If we look at cloud-based services, we now have multiple possible routes. The future of value-added smart metering services is going to depend less on the technology than on the commercial openness, or lack thereof, of parties allowing access to information originating from the meter. Which comes back to the fundamental question: who owns the meter data?
Adam Westbrooke, principal consultant, Scaled Insight
This article first appeared in Utility Week’s print edition of 24 February 2012.
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