Government Denies Price Hikes Will Negate Smart Grid Savings
Despite estimates that energy prices could increase by as much as 60 percent, the government has said smart metering could help cut bills in the long term
Nick Horler, chief executive of Scottish Power warned that he may be forced to take the issue to the Competition Commission unless Ofgem changes its spending programme. “Ofgem is playing yesterday’s game, which was sweating these assets and bringing costs down,” he told the Sunday Times. “We are at a point where we need to make big new investments. Ofgem has taken a very narrow view of economics and we may have no recourse but to go to the commission.”
The UK has been investigating the potential of smart metering and has set a target of rolling out the technology to all households by 2020 based on wider European targets.
Recent research by the Energy Saving Trust into the optimum design for in-home smart displays has revealed that consumers want the devices to have clear visual displays which show real-time electricity or gas consumption.
