Landis+Gyr has announced it has been selected by the UK’s largest energy supplier, British Gas (parent company Centrica) to support the UK’s first commercial-scale smart meter deployment in an energy efficiency effort it says could save consumers more than £200m in energy bills.
The deal will see British Gas deploy up to one million of Landis+Gyr’s dual fuel electricity and gas smart meters, along with Landis+Gyr’s innovative touch screen in home display, in UK customer homes, marking one of the fastest, largest and most advanced smart meter deployments in Europe.
British Gas and Landis+Gyr plan an open development, based wherever possible on existing standards, to help to accelerate the UK’s national smart metering roll-out and encourage the faster development of a range of ‘smart’ household appliances, from intelligent dishwashers to self-regulating heating controls. As part of the development, Landis+Gyr will share details of its smart metering system with third parties, allowing UK businesses a fast track to the creation of new solutions aimed at consumers, suppliers and utilities alike. This move is intended to provide other utilities with an open, practical blueprint for commercial-scale smart metering, crystallising guidance provided by both the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and UK regulator Ofgem (the Office of the Gas and Electricity Markets).
Cameron O’Reilly, CEO of Landis+Gyr, said, “Our partnership with British Gas represents a major breakthrough for smart metering in the UK. Together, we will pioneer the technical and practical standards that we hope will see every home and business in the country switch to smart metering within the next decade. We are proud and pleased to have been selected for such an instrumental role in this major deployment.”
“This is also great news for up to a million British Gas customers who could save as much as £200 million on their energy bills by the time the main UK rollout is completed in 2020.”
British Gas is the first of the country’s ‘big six’ utilities to undertake a major deployment following the publication last December of the DECC’s final plans for a national roll-out by 2020.
“We view this smart metering roll-out as one of our largest and most important projects ever”, said Petter Allison, director for smart metering for British Gas. “Smart meters have a fundamental role to play as they help customers become far more aware of the amount and cost of energy they use which encourages people to reduce their usage and save money.”
In the UK, Landis+Gyr employs just under 500 people at manufacturing and R&D sites in Stockport and Peterborough, developing gas and electricity smart metering solutions to serve the entire Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) market for the company. Landis+Gyr’s technology currently supports 3 out of 4 of the UK’s official government smart meter trials.
“The UK can lead the world into second-generation smart metering and energy management and this announcement marks the beginning of that process”, added Steve Cunningham, Landis+Gyr CEO for UK & Ireland, “British Gas customers will be able to actively manage their energy consumption and drive down their bills whilst a future large-scale smart grid infrastructure will allow British Gas to manage demand, protect the distribution network and optimise energy generation, including intermittent sources of renewable energy.”
