Smart meter roll-out
Finalising the smart meter roll-outs in Europe, with a focus on achieving tangible benefits for consumers and society
Smart meters are an essential first step to a digitised and decentralised energy system. Benefits such as savings on energy bills and reduced meter reading costs are a welcome economic relief. In the long run, an invaluable benefit is the transition of our outdated energy system to a smart, demand driven, flexible and greener one.
The next steps require additional services and technologies to work with smart meters. We have worked intensely with European institutions and member states to advance the smart meter roll-out and to understand what needs to be done when the roll-out is complete, if we are to realise the expected benefits.
Use of meter data to its full potential by all authorised energy market participants
With smart meters being rolled out in Europe, valuable data is generated that can benefit all energy market participants: consumers, network operators, DSOs, TSOs, suppliers and new energy service providers. For this to happen, the data needs to be transferred, processed and analysed in the best possible way. Data also needs to be accessed in a secure, efficient and non-discriminatory way free of charge for all authorised energy market participants.
We are working on developing the best technical solutions for these processes and we are advocating for defining requirements for data characteristics and data formats on European level.
Advocating for security and interoperability of the advanced metering infrastructure
Providers of smart energy products and services have created impressive technologies for home energy management. However, they are not yet connected in a way that can empower consumers and maximise savings. Devices and systems have to communicate to each other, in order for the benefits they promise to be fully realised. Therefore, interoperability is critical to driving consumer adoption of energy management solutions going forward.
Moreover, security of the advanced metering infrastructure is essential to gain consumer trust and protect their data, as well as the hardware from eventual attacks. Our priority is to guarantee security through initiating the first European protection profile for smart meters.
Driving the deployment of flexible demand-side resources to support EU’s clean energy transition
Demand-side flexibility can play a key role in reducing overall system costs. For this to happen, consumers should have the chance to participate in demand-side flexibility and get rewarded if they chose to do so. Smart metering systems are the necessary infrastructure in this process, as they are used for the measuring and settlement process. Thus, they form the basis for a flexible demand-driven energy market.