By Alicia Carrasco, eMeter Director for EMEA Regulatory Affairs

In an Aug 4 launch event, Ofgem (the UK electricity and gas regulator) presented key reasons for the Smart Metering Prospectus which was announced in July.

At the Prospectus launch event, Ofgem director of regulatory services Robert Hull said that the UK smart metering program should “enable innovation, such as new services and products coming from new players.

Perhaps even more exciting is the opportunity to introduce a new tradable commodity in the energy marketplace: information. Specifically: consumption data, coupled with consumers who are able and willing to adapt their behavior to save energy and money.

Ofgem clearly intends to accelerate smart meter rollouts in the UK. Here are the highlights of this plan…

This phased plan includes target dates for utility rollout programs, with some flexibility to accommodate and adapt to feedback from power suppliers (utilities).

Throughout this public-private partnership effort, Ofgem is communicating constantly with industry players. This is evident in these upcoming steps:

• October-September 2010: Responses to Ofgem’s questions for suppliers are due. Priority questions concern statement of design requirements, implementation strategy, and rollout strategy.
• Summer 2011: Finalization of functional requirements and technical specifications.
• Spring 2012: Implementation of the regulatory framework for the DCC (DataCommsCo), a new UK-wide service that will centrally manage data communication to and from residential smart meters, for both the electricity and gas sectors.
• Summer 2012: Supplier rollouts begin.
• Autumn 2013: DCC launches.

What’s in the Smart Meter Prospectus? Key points address:

• Defining smart meter functional specifications such as memory (a year), switching, prepayment diagnosis, and interoperability.
• Providing remote on/off switching of natural gas supply via a gas valve.
• How suppliers can provide in-home displays to residential customers.
• Specifying wide-area network signal frequencies.
• Creating the DCC via a competitive application process. This service will handle all residential smart meter data, but it might also prove be helpful for other customer types as well.

I asked whether Ofgem plans to exceed the current requirement to provide a web portal where consumers can monitor the cost of their energy consumption. For instance, might this service also allow consumers to set custom alerts and enable demand response actions?

Ofgem said that they welcome any tool which expands what can be accomplished via smart metering.