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How smarter gas meters can

add more customer value

Gerrit Rentier Senior Business Process Analyst

DELTA Energy & Multimedia

Middelburg, the Netherlands

July 4th, 2014

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Few EU member states roll out smart gas meters

Roll-out commitments for European Union investment about €45 billion by 2020 for the installation of close to 200 million smart meters for Electricity (about 72% of all European consumers) and 45 million meters for Gas (around 40% of consumers)

"Benchmarking Smart Metering Deployment in the EU-27 with a focus on electricity” (adopted June 17th, 2014)

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Less attention to smart gas meters; but why?

However, Smart Meter Program Key Success Factor Number 1 (© Accenture) is

“Design and deploy with the consumer at the heart of the solution…” and the biggest impact on the energy bill of many consumers is their gas use.. shouldn’t we pay full attention to how we design & roll out Smart Gas Meters?

From the report “Benchmarking Smart Metering Deployment in the EU-27” (page 8): - Five Member States (Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the UK) have decided to roll-out smart gas meters by 2020 or earlier; - Two Member States (France and Austria) have plans to proceed with a large-scale roll-out but have yet to take official decisions; - In 12 Member States (Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden), the results of the Cost Benefit Analysis were negative;

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Gas; by far the largest item on Dutch consumer’s energy bill

Average Dutch Household Energy Bill (about 2200 a year)

wash & dry Electricity

lighting Electricity

fridge & freezer Electricity

heating Water Electricity

other uses Electricity

space heating Gas

bathroom heating Gas

cooking Gas

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UK: Gas the largest part of your household’s carbon foot print

If consumers get a better understanding of their energy use then they can see new ways of spending less on energy .. Space heating and water heating have the biggest impact on your energy bill, so the biggest energy saving potential As shown here for the UK, “Gas” is also the bigger culprit in terms of CO2 emissions…

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Gas prices are said to keep going up

Source: Monthly energy price statistics, DECC

Prices of gas are predicted to keep going up, making it even more important or consumers to get a handle on how much natural gas they are using. Supplier switching can of course help keep prices competitive, but wholesale prices are determined on a global scale and there is little they can do about that. However, consumers do have a direct handle on how much they use; if they become aware of how much energy they use for what, they become “enabled”.

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Energy transition & “always on” means new roles for meters

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Behavioral Energy Efficiency = First Fuel

In a supermarket or store, items have a price so consumers can make informed decisions. For energy, they simply get 1 bill a year, after using energy for 365 days. Smart meters can help customers become aware of energy use and make informed choices about energy use on a daily basis. With a proper behavioral approach we can have smart meters help customers save money (and the environment).

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Customer value smart meters: mainly energy saving

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-60

-40

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Meters Roll out ICT Energysaving

BetterProcesses

DynamicTariffs

Rough Cost benefit analysis for Smart meter roll out

An important concern with Dutch Parliament as well as other governments (e.g., Belgium) is with the actual amount of energy saved by the roll-out of smart meters. Whereas for example pilots in Ireland (CER) have shown robust results, other pilots (Dutch trial roll out) have not.

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Customer value in smart meters: mainly energy savings

If Space heating and water heating have the biggest impact on your energy bill, they also have the biggest energy saving potential for the benefits we hope to achieve and establish. This means that the relationship between customers & smart gas meters is important.

EC presentation Cost Benefit Analyses (British) Roll Out Smart Meters June 26th, 2014

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Potential of smart meters for conservation: feedback types

ACEEE report shows up to 9 or even 12 percent conservation for energy if the information is near real time.

ACEEE report shows up to 9 or even 12 percent conservation for energy if the information is near real time…

Smart meters can technically enable the first four categories of feedback loops…

“Advanced meter reading initiatives and residential feedback programs: A Meta-Review for Household Electricity-saving Opportunities”, American Council for Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), Washington, June 2010

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Psychological basis: experiential learning

If we present actionable information (“concrete experience”) based on recent smart meter data that tells consumers where they are spending energy (and money), leading to observation and comprehension, then they are enabled to try and save energy (“active experimentation”), in heating, hot water and appliances.

Current version Dutch Smart Meter Requirements

• P1= Consumer port

information in the home, updated

every 10 seconds for Electricity

updated every 60 minutes for Gas

• Distribution Network Operator (DNO)

rolls out smart E and G meters and

facilitates consumers & markets

• P3= WAN, P4= market interface for

ESCO’s, Energy Suppliers, aggregators;

updated every 24 hours

“P1- device”(Energy management

display, APP, tablet etc)

P1

G-meter

W-meter

Heatmeter

P2

Central system

GSM network

P3

P2

Energy

suppliers

ODA’s

Water companies

P4

(A) Tradi-tional meters Regulatory (Energy Efficiency Directive or EED)

(B) Smart meters Regulatory (EED ) home reports

(C) Smart meter E remote (WAN)

(D) Smart meter E with device in the home (HAN)

(E) “Niche” Smart meter E, with device in the home and near real time data from slave meters (DSMR 5: 2016,..) Home Area Network

(F) Smart thermostats/ smart homes HAN (WAN) Remote control (Nest, GEO)

E Bill (Year)

Monthly (bi-monthly)

24 hrs (web portal)

10 seconds 1 second (DSMR 5: 2016)

Real time

G Bill (Year)

Monthly (bi-monthly)

24 hrs (web portal)

60 minutes (DSMR 2, 4)

5 minutes (DSMR 5: 2016)

Real time

€ Free Free Free or Cheap

Medium price (+/- 100, 150)

Plain read only P1 customer devices

Pricey Device +/- 250/350

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Frequency of customer info; from meters to smart homes

If we upgrade the frequency by which smart gas meters inform consumers of their energy use, the smart meter functionality closes in on more expensive smart home solutions

Dutch consumer groups and energy sector recognized the value of making

smart gas meter information on the consumer interface (the “P1”) available

with a higher frequency.

During the evaluation of the 2 year trial period for smart meter roll out early

2014 it was agreed among Distribution Network Operators (responsible for roll

out) and all other stakeholders that DSMR 5, the smart meter type that will be

rolled out from 2016 onwards, will feature 5 minute updates from the smart gas

meter to the consumer.

This was confirmed

by Minister of

Economic Affairs

Henk Kamp

in answers to the

Dutch parliament

(April 7th, 2014,

question 29)

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DSMR 5 (2016); consumers get 5 minute updates on Gas use

DSMR 5 (2016) delivers more customer value

DSMR 5 P1 “Consumer port”

information in the Home Area Network

will be

updated every second for Electricity

updated every 5 minutes for Gas

customers get much more frequent

information on the cause

of the bigger part of

their energy bill

more information

means more choices

more customer

value from smart

meters through

making the architecture

for smart gas meters even smarter..

“P1- device”(Energy management

display, APP, tablet etc)

P1

G-meter

W-meter

Heatmeter

P2P2