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Not Too Smart an Innovation: Britain's Plans to Switch Consumers to Smart Electricity and Gas Meters

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  • Stephen D. Thomas

    (Business School, University of Greenwich, 30 Park Row, London SE10 9LS, UK)

Abstract

The high cost of meeting peak demand for electricity could be reduced if demand could be smoothed. Growth in the use of intermittent, renewable sources of energy will reinforce the need to be able reduce demand when necessary. “Smart†meters for electricity and gas could meet this need, and, by 2018, plans exist for all UK households to have them. However, the UK government's cost-benefit analyses of smart meters for electricity make little mention of their most powerful capability: To set prices in real time, so that consumers pay high prices when supply is tight. Without this, the benefits of smart meters may not be enough to repay the huge cost of their installation. Officialdom's silence on time-of-day pricing means that its impact on poor consumers is not addressed. With smart meters for gas, the case for introduction, even with time-of-day pricing, is equally unconvincing.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen D. Thomas, 2012. "Not Too Smart an Innovation: Britain's Plans to Switch Consumers to Smart Electricity and Gas Meters," Energy & Environment, , vol. 23(6-7), pages 1057-1074, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:engenv:v:23:y:2012:i:6-7:p:1057-1074
    DOI: 10.1260/0958-305X.23.6-7.1057
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Thomas, Steve, 2006. "The British Model in Britain: Failing slowly," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 583-600, March.
    2. Paul L. Joskow & Catherine D. Wolfram, 2012. "Dynamic Pricing of Electricity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(3), pages 381-385, May.
    3. Chris M. Wilson & Catherine Waddams Price, 2007. "Do Consumers Switch to the Best Supplier?," Working Paper series, University of East Anglia, Centre for Competition Policy (CCP) 2007-06, Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
    4. John Hills, 2012. "Final report of the Hills Independent Fuel Poverty Review: Getting the Measure of Fuel Poverty," CASE Reports casereport72, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    5. Stephen Thomas, 2004. "Evaluating the British Model of Electricity Deregulation," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(3), pages 367-398, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Milchram, Christine & Hillerbrand, Rafaela & van de Kaa, Geerten & Doorn, Neelke & Künneke, Rolf, 2018. "Energy Justice and Smart Grid Systems: Evidence from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 229(C), pages 1244-1259.
    2. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Kivimaa, Paula & Hielscher, Sabine & Jenkins, Kirsten, 2017. "Vulnerability and resistance in the United Kingdom's smart meter transition," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 767-781.

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