PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Energy: Meters (16 September 2015)

Energy suppliers are required to offer their domestic customers an In Home Display (IHD) where they install a smart metering system, enabling consumers to visualise how much energy they use, when they use it and how much it costs them in near real time. There is strong evidence that IHDs are instrumental to energy savings, as set out in the Smart Metering Impact Assessment and the findings of the Early Learning Project published in March 2015. IHDs facilitate a significant proportion of the expected benefits of the smart metering programme (some £4.3 billion).

Energy suppliers are able to offer their customers, where they so choose, other engagement tools in addition to the IHD. However there is a lack of evidence on the enduring consumer benefits of alternative engagement tools within Great Britain. The Government is currently consulting on proposals to allow suppliers to undertake, with the Secretary of State’s approval on a case by case basis, trials of alternative energy use engagement tools to IHDs. This will help DECC to gather evidence on the performance of other approaches, to understand if the IHD requirement remains optimised for the costs and benefits accruing to consumers.

The consultation can be found on the following weblink:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/smart-meter-in-home-display-licence-conditions.