Without customers on board, smart meters can't succeed

Smart electricity meters might have the potential to help cut power consumption and energy bills considerably … but only if customers accept them and use them as intended. Otherwise, they have the potential to end up resembling so many unused high-tech stationary bicycles, acquired with the best of intentions but rarely put to work as they gather dust in a corner of the house.

That “but” has proved a problem in some recent smart meter rollouts. The meters, it turns out, might be smart, but the organizations deploying them aren’t always similarly savvy. As Greenbang has noted in its most recent report on smart meters, “Europe’s Smart Meter Outlook for 2020: A $25 billion market,” “implementation of smart metering is more than a technical/technological issue — it’s also one that requires proper customer education, public relations and genuine two-way dialogue.”

So it’s encouraging when news comes out that at least some utility companies get that. And the UK’s Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) seems to be one of them.

SSE announced today that it’s signed a number of new contracts with Onzo, which specialises in hardware and software to enable utility customers to better measure and manage their energy use. The two companies have already been working together for a while, but the new contracts are aimed at furthering that relationship to ensure consumers stay informed and engaged during the UK’s planned smart meter rollout.

Onzo will be a  “central part of our smart metering strategy,” said Colin Sempill, director of business transformation at SSE. “We have worked closely with the company for over two years and believe they can make an important contribution to our efforts to ensure that consumers understand and welcome the coming rollout of smart meters.”

The two companies began working together in 2008 when Onzo agreed to supply SSE with more than £7 million in smart metering products and services.