1. Benefits of smart meters recognised worldwide
Utilities across the globe are increasingly implementing smart grid initiatives, with annual
growth in the Asia Pacific region approaching 40 per cent and the projected benefits of smart
meter deployment pegged at millions of dollars in the US.
Recent research by economic and financial experts at the Brattle Group revealed the
phenomenal advantages of smart operations that may be available to US energy suppliers in
years to come.
According to the study, an American utility with one million residential customers could
potentially net benefits of between $96 million and $287 million (£177 million) over the next 20
years, simply by rolling out smart meters.
Prepared for the Edison Foundation's Institute for Electric Efficiency, the investigation
estimated the costs and advantages of smart meters. Researchers used four "prototypical
utilities" with differing generation resources and load forecasts, as well as capacity and smart
meter costs.
The group then assessed the operational benefits that each utility would experience as it
replaced its existing metering infrastructure with the smart technology.
It was found that the majority of positives would be realised once customers began taking
advantage of special offerings enabled by the smart meter. These may include energy-use
data delivered via in-home devices, dynamic pricing and direct load control.
The Brattle Group concluded that for each of the four utilities, the commercial advantages of
implementing smart meter initiatives far exceeded the costs of doing so.
Ahmad Faruqui, a principal with the organisation, said: "We all know that smart meters
provide operational benefits by eliminating or avoiding the cost of reading meters.
"However, what we have demonstrated is that they also open a gateway to benefits on the
customer side of the meter. Even without dynamic pricing, smart meters allow utilities to offer
customers a variety of programs that would lower their energy costs," he added.
But Mr Faruqui went on to say that "with dynamic pricing, these benefits rise considerably"...
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