By Tim Conneally, Betanews
By 2020, every British household could be equipped with a smart meter -- a device that will allow for a higher level of granularity in tracking a home's energy consumption, and could lead to an overall reduction in carbon waste. Last October, the UK Government announced that intended to mandate smart meters for all households and small and medium-sized business sites.
Yesterday, the Department of Energy and Climate Change's (DECC) Ed Miliband announced the government has launched a public consultation (found here) on the implementation of smart meters which will be open until August 3.
"In short, smart meters will become a cornerstone of our efficient management of energy resources as a nation and as individuals in the future," the consultation reads, "The roll out of smart meters will be a major undertaking, involving visits to over 25 million households, to replace something approaching 50 million meters. The Government recognizes that many policy, technical, and operational issues will need to be worked through before a final timetable can be settled. However, we have set an indicative target of the end of 2020 for the completion of the rollout."
By the government's preliminary estimations, the rollout will reduce carbon emissions by 2.6 million tons and save between £2.5-£3.6 billion over the next 20 years.
"This is another part of our Great British refurb," said Miliband, "The meters most of us have in our homes were designed for a different age, before climate change. Now we need to get smarter with our energy."
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009