Smart meters a safe bet as market swells

08.11.10

The smart meter market is growing massively, and will continue to grow through to 2014.

Researching the smart meter market, Ovum, which is part of Datamonitor, listed the UK as the most liberalised of Europe’s energy markets, with different countries’ smart meter roll-outs in various stages of completion.

"Smart meters became a mandatory technology in the EU with guidelines stating that there should be an 80% deployment of these by 2020," said Stuart Ravens, Ovum principal analyst.

"When the Labour government was in power it put in plans to include smart meters in 100% of gas and electricity utilities by 2020. The coalition government has continued this but accelerated the deployment."

Mr Ravens also highlighted the importance of educating consumers about conserving their energy.

"The smart meter attached to someone's wall will help companies and may be a nice novelty for consumers for the first three months but then they will go back to their old habits."

"[Companies] need to get customers to associate electricity use with recycling. For example turning off lights can save carbon," Mr Ravens said.

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