Smart Meters (Oxfordshire Liberal Democrats)

Oxfordshire Liberal Democrats <info@oxfordshirelibdems.org.uk>

Smart Meters

April 7, 2009 1:00 PM
By Cllr Zoe Patrick in County Council

I hope that this motion finds favour with everyone today because this is a positive step that we can take as a County Council to help householders to maintain lower fuel bills during this time of economic recession. It also not only helps us to reduce energy bills, but also to reduce carbon emissions and tackle fuel poverty.

The scheme in York was introduced last year and has been a huge success. There are various types of smart meters available. The OWL wireless energy monitor which is a device that is clipped around the electricity cable that connects to the home's electricity meter and a display unit that can be positioned anywhere in the home which provides information about the total mains electricity consumption.

There is also a plug-in device simply fits between the appliance one wishes to monitor and the wall socket, and thus provides the information about the electricity consumption of individual appliances.

Both meters are available at York libraries and may be borrowed for one week free of charge.

We all use fridges, televisions and washing machines but often don't realise just how much energy they use - in particular, televisions on 'stand-by' are known to use an lot of energy when they could simply be switched off. If people are aware how much electricity is being used, then they will more likely wish to switch off or use appliances less frequently.

The scheme has also been taken up by other councils including Leicester City Council encouraging small and medium-sized businesses to take them up. Indeed they have even installed the meters in more than 300 council-owned buildings and have made tremendous savings.

At a time when there is much concern about global warming, this is a positive step to help our environment and the planet. Indeed the Conservative party leader himself came out in support of the idea last year saying we should have smart metering for all homes to allow residents to keep track of their energy savings.

Indeed, the devices will be compulsory for all homes under the government's Energy Act and this is what received the backing of the Tory party leader who has been quoted as saying the 'Conservatives would invest £1 billion in installing the devices.'

However, if the administration do not wish to bring this in County wide at the first instant - we could always ask the Cabinet to pilot a small area first and see how the scheme goes. This means we can target say, 10 libraries instead of the County's 43. My suggestion would be to start the pilot say in the South or Vale parts of the County which would give us an idea how successful it will be. In York they bought 46 of the basic plug in meters and 15 of the wireless sort. However, because demand was so high they had to order a further 90 plug in and 35 extra wireless devices. In fact the scheme was so immediately popular that there was a waiting list of 100 within 24 hours of the launch.

The plug-ins cost £14.99 each and the wireless ones £39.99 each. However, if there was a small charge for hiring them, then we would soon recuperate our money back. Equally, if people were able to buy them at libraries, then it would be of no cost at all to the council.

So this is a simple step, a small measure which can benefit a lot of people. I ask you to support this motion and let us see some small action to help residents during the recession and at the same time take action to reduce Oxfordshire's carbon footprint.