Network

NETWORK / 24 / DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 E nergy suppliers have chosen to take a cautious approach to smart meter installations. So far only 4 mil- lion of the required 53 million meters have been installed, according to the consumer campaign Smart Energy GB. But suppliers have good reason to be hesitant. Ongoing concerns about the adoption of SMETS 1 meters on to the Data Communi- cations Company (DCC) system has resulted in many waiting for the DCC network to launch before ramping up installation rates to the necessary levels. Last month, following several missed deadlines, the DCC network for the central and southern regions of the UK went "live". Both suppliers and DNOs now have a limited time to Now the DCC network has gone live, attention has turned to dealing with smart meter installation challenges. What can be learnt from the rollout so far? A mountain to climb SMART METERING should take heed) to "get on with it". A proactive approach is critical for several reasons, it says, but several allude to the expectation that the installa- tion process will throw up many challenges, and the sooner these are identified the better. First, it warns that suppliers will find it difficult to demon- strate that they have taken "all reasonable steps" to provide their customers with smart meters by the 2020 deadline if they plan to leave significant numbers of premises until the end of the rollout. Such an ap- proach could result in a backlog of difficult installations, some of which will not have immedi- ate solutions. It will also put a strain on third party contacts. Ofgem also recommends they undertake trials as early as possible to inform their overall installation strategy. This will allow them to review processes for tackling problematic or unsuccessful attempts and adapt accordingly. Ofgem would also like suppliers to share such information with each other to aid the overall effort. Similarly, starting early will allow sup- pliers to learn from their early experiences about the rate at which installs are likely to be aborted, and to take account for this in their rollout planning, evolving their strategies to try and reduce abort rate. While only a small fraction of the necessary installations have so far been undertaken, the data they provide gives a valuable picture of the scale of the chal- lenge ahead, and the most likely sources of failure. With the move to smart grids and the growth of a smart home market largely reliant on the successful installation of smart meters, gauging the penetration of the technology across each area also holds value for market players. Electralink, the data transfer service for the UK en- ergy market, is uniquely placed to provide such an insight. It is using five years of data from the DTS network to provide a range of insight services including become DCC "users", and while no deadline has been set for the northern region, the focus of attention will move to the challenge of installation. How difficult a challenge this will actually prove, beyond the sheer number of meters that need installation, is unknown. While some, such as PwC, still have concerns about the meters themselves and wish to see the rollout halted until further trials of the technol- ogy have taken place, Ofgem is already chivvying suppliers into action for fear all chances of meeting the deadline will be lost. In an open letter published last month, Ofgem told particu- larly small suppliers (although it stressed that all suppliers continued on p27

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