Energy and Climate Change CommitteeSupplementary written evidence submitted by the Energy Services and Technology Association

1

NSS

Non SMETS Smart. An advanced domestic meter that largely meets governments original objectives for a “smart meter” designed to proprietary specifications and installed by suppliers at consenting customer sites. These meters may need to be replaced and also may not meet supplier obligations for smart meter roll-out.

600, 000

2

SMETS1

The first version of the Smart Metering Equipment Technical Specifications comprising of a series of Detailed Design Specifications (DDS) for electricity (EM), gas (GM), comms hub (CH) and in-home display (IHD). Written by DECC in consultation with industrial stakeholders. May be installed now to meet supplier obligations. Non-standard communications protocols for Wide Area and Home Area Networks (HAN and WAN) may be proprietary but must be open. Suppliers use their own head-end systems (HES) to read. SMETS1 meters are not technically interoperable but suppliers may make commercial arrangements between themselves to remotely read the main register. May not be installed once SMETS2 meters are available. May be required to be read by DCC once available.

10, 000

3

SMETS2a

The second version of SMETS specifying the final hardware version to enable meter vendors to start designing and building kit. Successfully notified to the EU in April 2013. The underlying protocol is specified for WAN and HAN. These are DLMS and Zigbee respectively. The details of these protocols are still to be completed by meter vendors and suppliers in the Great Britain Companion Specification (GBCS).

0

4

SMETS2b

Fully interoperable meters using completely specified protocol (GBCS) which is scheduled to be complete in April 2014 (Version 1.3). Latest estimate for availability of compliant meters December 2014. Read only through/using the DCC, unless customer opts-out to have the meter read by a third party (non-domestic)

0