The brand-new U.K. Energy and Climate Secretary, Ed Davey, is starting his tenure with a major announcement: the launch of the Energy Efficiency Deployment Office (EEDO).

EEDO will:

• Serve as the government’s center of expertise on energy efficiency, by further developing the evidence base on this subject.
• Support coherent delivery of existing U.K. energy efficiency policies. This includes clarifying the government’s “offer” to encourage consumers to save energy.
• Develop a far-reaching U.K. energy efficiency strategy, slated to be published by the end of 2012. This will include identifying opportunities for increased energy efficiency in the U.K., and how to take advantage of them.

First, EEDO has issued a call for evidence about current energy development that might influence future opportunities for energy efficiency.

EEDO’s recent evidence brief describes current U.K. energy usage and how the U.K. compares with EU energy efficiency. According to the ODYSSEE project (which compares energy efficiency across the EU), the U.K. ranks 18th in energy efficiency out of 27 EU nations — consuming 10% more energy per dwelling than the EU average of 17,747 kWh per dwelling.

EU household energy consumption per occupied dwelling, climate adjusted, 2008. Source: EEDO. (Click to enlarge.)

EEDO is a welcome development, and eMeter plans to respond to EEDO’s call for evidence. We can demonstrate how smart meters support energy efficiency not only at the consumption level, but also at the distribution level.

In the U.K., 10% of energy demand is categorized as “losses,” including “avoidable” distribution losses — caused by imbalances between distribution circuits, equipment problems such as loose or corroded connectors, energy theft, unmetered deliveries (unintentionally unmetered) and situations where delivery voltage is higher than necessary.