Feasibility investigation of smart meters in delivering low carbon community: a consumer engagement perspective

In Great Britain (GB) the government has vision to implement smart meters in all domestic buildings by the end of 2019, which is considered as a key step to achieve GB’s carbon reduction commitment by delivering low carbon communities. Smart meters are expected to bring significant benefits to both energy suppliers and consumers. Energy suppliers will be able to obtain accurate meter readings with the ability of remote operation and management. On the other hand consumers are expected to be beneficial by real time visualization of energy consumption and actively engaging themselves in demand management. However smart meters implementation has raised debates and discussions among various stakeholders on various issues such as privacy (associated with data obtained from smart meters), variable tariffs/pricing to manage demand load, deployment strategies, etc. Also direct and indirect implication of these matters on consumers’ social, economic and behavioural aspects has also been regarded as a matter of concern, however less investigated. This paper presented a critical view of various arguable issues associated with smart meter implementation with a focus on consumer engagement. As a method, key research papers and guides/documents from leading organizations were reviewed. It has been identified that consumer engagement plays a key role in a community based approach to maximize the benefits of smart metering. The review also identified several key issues which lack evidence led conclusions and require further applied research, they are: privacy and security concerns of consumers; and learning process and behavioural adaptation of consumers to maximize the benefit of the system. The findings of this research will be beneficial for energy suppliers and policy makers for effective strategic decisions.