Press release: Smarter Energy: energy efficiency from the meter to the grid
14 April 2011 – Brussels The European Smart Metering Industry Group (ESMIG) held a conference this morning in the Jean Durieux Room of Charlemagne building entitled “Smarter Energy: energy efficiency from the meter to the grid” within the framework of Sustainable Energy Week 2011 organised by the European Commission.
The event focused on
what Smart Metering is all about, in particular
what it means for the consumer, what the impact of Smart Metering technologies
on energy efficiency is and how other smarter and more efficient technologies –
what we call “Smart Grid” – can be enabled. Around 100 guests attended the event.
Frank Hyldmar, ESMIG Vice-President opened the first session on how to
create consumer awareness and engagement with Jessica Stromback (Executive
Director, SEDC) having the first presentation. Speaking about Demand Response
programmes and how to empower the end-consumers, Ms. Stromback highlighted that
“the intelligent cooperation between consumption, transmission and distribution
and generation, acting as equal partners in a holistic energy eco-system, is
the intelligence of the Smart Grid.” The next high-level speaker was Zoe McLeod
(Consumer Focus, UK) who said: “We should not underestimate the challenge of
achieving behaviour change. Programmes often fail because there is not enough
focus on the customer experience of having a Smart Meter. Customer trust and
engagement are fragile and the experience of those who get their Smart Meter
early will be crucial.” Then, Dr. Howard Porter (Managing Director, ESMIG) introduced
the 
preliminary findings of the ESMIG Energy efficiency project “Empower
Demand”, which is a mass comparison study of 110 Pilot Studies designed to
provide empirical evidence on the potential of Smart Meter enabled programmes
in Europe. He explained how different direct feedback and pricing options
impact on energy reductions, which would be around 10% as recently also
confirmed by the European Commission in its Smart Grids Communication. The next
set of results, which will be available before summer break, will be shared
among others with the Commission and consumer groups for consultation and
feedback.
The second session on smart grids and smart metering – energy efficiency
at all levels opened with Bertrand Hugoo (Chairman, T&D Europe Executive
Committee). Jörg Jasper (Eurelectric, member WG Smart Grids) took the floor
followed by Frank Hyldmar, who concluded on data-security 
and privacy as a key
requirement for smart metering/grids. “Data exchange is indispensable to
deliver advanced energy services: provide consumers with more detailed
information on how they use energy, enable those customers to reduce their
energy usage and carbon footprint, make electricity usage more efficient
(energy-saving) and reduce costs significantly.” However, “privacy cannot be
neglected to make Smart Metering a success, data security needs to be taken
forward and security needs to be holistic and end-to-end to be successful. Necessary
technologies and mechanisms are available today, but they have to be included
into Smart Metering.” It was noted that design for privacy and security needs
to be in focus when utilities set up specifications and enter request for
proposals for Smart Grid roll-out. ESMIG has been very active with Frank
Hyldmar chairing the Task Force Smart Grids Expert Group 2: Regulatory
Recommendations for Data Safety, Data Handling and Data Protection.
The event happened to take place only two days after the European Commission released its key-Communication on “Smart Grids: from Innovation to Deployment”.
