Government Stumps Up £4.6bn For Smart Grid

The government will commit up to £4.58 billion to build the wide area networks needed to support smart meters in 30 million UK households.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) plans to roll out smart meters across the country by 2020 and on Tuesday it published contract notices calling for tenders.

The notices provide further information on elements of the government’s plans and signal that the cash, which utility companies say is essential to turning the government’s dream into reality, will indeed be forthcoming.

The country has been divided into three WAN areas: northern Great Britain and Scotland, central Great Britain and Wales and southern England. Each is worth up to nearly £1.6 billion and bidders may bid for any or all of them.

Nationwide ambition

In a separate contract notice, tenders have been invited for providing the data services needed to handle the avalanche of data a nationwide network of smart meters would produce.

This aspect is worth up to £240 million, and the government plans for the services to be administered by a new “central data and communications company (DCC)” operating under licence.

Despite a record national deficit and swingeing spending cuts across the board, the government thinks smart meters are important in ensuring an affordable, secure and sustainable energy supply.

The notices state: “The UK Government has an objective for every home in Great Britain (GB) to have smart energy meters, empowering people to manage their energy consumption and reduce their carbon emissions. Businesses and public sector users would also have smart or advanced energy metering suited to their needs.”

Smart metering is designed to build intelligence into the country’s utility network. The hope is that by recording energy consumption at intervals throughout the day and feeding this data back to utility companies via a smart network or grid, supply and demand can be managed and consumption ultimately reduced.

The 2020 target for 100 percent smart meter coverage in the UK was set under the previous Labour government, and the coalition brought the start of the rollout forward to 2013 during its first summer in charge.

David Jamieson

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  • Friday, September 2, 2011,

    Dear Sirs,

    I propose the scheme “Anatoliy Aleksenko’s Mechanism of renewal of energy” the AUTONOMOUS engine of the FUTURE which is able to create the efficiency of more than 1(ONE) and to have almost perpetual motor life.
    It doesn’t need COOLING SYSTEM, it doesn’t use the FUEL but some lubricant, it doesn’t need any FILTERS and it is able to work “openly” underground, underwater, in GASEOUS ATMOSPHERE and in the OPEN SPACE. It is reversible, can work without transmission.
    It’s a COLD MECHANISM which doesn’t need heating and then COOLING. Neither heat of deserts nor the Antarctic cold can hinder it’s work.
    It’s production is not expensive, it is simple in operation. Any transportation (AUTO, AIR, SHIP’S, RAILWAY and other) will become profitable with this mechanism. It can not only compete with electric stations, atomic included but to give them odds. Neither the earthquakes nor other natural calamities frighten it. This is IDEAL for (ELECTRO-GENERATOR, BUS, TRUCK, SUV & VAN, HELICOPTER, DIRIGIBLE, EKRANOPLAN, UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE, JET PACK, HOVERCRAFT, AMPHIBIAN, SUBMARINE, REFRIGERATOR, RAILWAY, METRO, RAILGUN, LASER, OPEN SPACE…).
    It can save the WORLD CIVILIZATION from the GLOBAL increasing of the temperature (HOTBED EFFECT, FLOODS, WATERSPOUTS…); oil pollution; energetic crisis; industrial breakdown; toxic gas ejection (CO, NO, CH); further destroying of the Ozone laver of the Earth; progressing AIDS (during the temperature increasing and organism dehydrating).
    In case you are interested in this INFORMATION and you are going to become the Co-participant of the PROJECT, you are WELCOME to SEND SUGGESTIONS in Russian language to the address:
    Anatoliy I. Aleksenko
    Prospekt Octyabrskoy Revolyutsiyi, 57, apartment 87, UA – 99057, Sevastopol – 57, ARC, Ukraine.
    Telephone: +38 0 692 433-365 ; Mobile: +38 0 50 563-3452 .
    E-Mail: ecoglobal.aleksenko@yandex.ru
    Having rendered the assistance in patenting and implementation, having become the Co-participant of the PROJECT, you will get rid of not only oil-gas and economic but also political DEPENDENCE.
    Can you please pass this REPORT to all INTERESTED CIRCLES…
    Please don’t forget of time factor.

    Sincerely,

    Anatoliy Aleksenko
    Inventor of engines and propellers.

  • Ah, thank you Anatoly

    We don't believe a single word of what you say of course, but it is always nice to hear of a perpetual motion machine.

    It is also quite unusual to hear of one that cures AIDS as well.

    Peter

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