The amount of detailed real-time data a smart grid needs to manage the push for electrification and renewables presents challenges – but there’s an affordable solution.
There are gaps in UK households’ understanding of their energy usage.
Daisy Daisy/Shutterstock
Most households pay a flat rate 24/7 for electricity although the cost of generating it fluctuates through the day. Wireless technologies are changing that system.
Smart meters can help share the load of charging electric cars.
Chris Hunkeler/Flickr
Smart meters are being rolled out across Australia, offering the opportunity to share data with third parties who promise to help you find a cheaper deal. But this requires strong consumer protection.
“No Linky” posters in Montreuil, near Paris. The first one reads “Linky: You can say no.” The second reads “Linky spies on your private life.” Some residents fear data surveillance rather than looking at possible advantages of smart meters.
Carole Salères
A recent study suggests that smart meters can help households reduce their electricity use by as much as 5%. Are France’s anti-Linky households listening?
Policymakers need to be smart about the smart meter rollout.
AAP Image/David Crosling
You may already have a smart meter at home, which monitors your electricity use at 30-minute intervals. But until you can access that data yourself, you could be missing out on the best power deals.
Low levels at Cape Town’s Theewaterskloof Dam. Smart meters could slow water loss.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
Smart meters may help water saving initiatives as the drought persists in South Africa’s Western Cape. It can help those who need achieve saving targets.
A technician checks a smart meter data in this file photo. Research suggests the technology fails to affect consumer behaviour.
(AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
Apartment-dwellers risk being left behind in the rooftop solar boom. But some projects are showing how apartments can join the transition to a distributed renewable energy future.
Energy bills are higher on the political agenda than ever before and we are constantly being told that devices such as smart meters will help us make better decisions and take control of the energy we…
Who’ll switch on to time-of-use tariffs now we have the choice?
55Laney69/Flickr
In Victoria, households now have the option to take up time of use tariffs - if they do, they’ll pay more for electricity during peak times, and less off-peak. Taking up the tariffs will be voluntary and…
In the short term, reducing demand could be bad for the environment, but the long-term view is brighter.
Gustavo Durán
The past year has seen several processes to reduce the price of electricity to consumers. Each has highlighted the importance of “demand management” - consumers reducing use at peak times to reduce the…
Smart meters worldwide use conventional cell phone networks to transmit their data.
portland general
Most fairly well educated people recognise pseudoscience as bunkum when they see it — astrology, young-earth creationism, alien abduction, pyramid power … Yet some of these same people are now being sucked…
A cleaner, more efficient Australia will blend smart grids and meters with renewable power’s growing capacity. Pictured: Spain’s Gemasolar concentrated solar thermal power plant.
Gemasolar
In part 13 of our multi-disciplinary Millennium Project series, Mark Diesendorf argues that it is high time we got smart about power: how we generate it and how we deliver it. Global challenge 13: How…