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SMART METERING

Like many in the energy industry, xoserve faces a future which will be shaped by the outcome of the Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC’s) and Ofgem’s SMART Metering Implementation Programme.

Having managed significant industry changes in the past, xoserve has a clear view when it comes to the SMART Metering Programme. Much industry focus is on the role of the Central Data and Communications Provider (DCC) and the message coming from xoserve is keep it simple and keep the changes to a manageable size in order to achieve the go live date in 2013.

Chris Murray, xoserve’s CEO explains, ”It is easy when you have a green field site such as the DCC to start filling it with all types of services and activities. I understand the customer drivers for doing this, but as an industry we have to be realistic. Change in this business is complex and can often be costly. We have to ensure we set ourselves ambitious but achievable targets and understand the benefits which will provide consumers with an improved service at what will hopefully be a lower overall price.“

“We estimate that 95% of the benefits outlined by DECC can be achieved by a DCC which carries out the telecommunications service for SMART metering with companies such as xoserve providing services in to it. With modern systems such interfaces can appear seamless to the end user and be of great benefit by presenting both gas and electric data onto our customers’ desktop s whilst behind the scenes the data is sourced from different providers.”

xoserve says this approach will minimise the scale of change required to systems across the energy industry and, because many of the gas data services are already centralised under xoserve, it will be cost efficient. xoserve acknowledges that a number of processes such as customer switching both in gas and electricity can and should be improved, but believes that many of these benefits can be achieved within the current industry framework.

xoserve sees the opportunity for change extending to include centralised data management for the Independent Gas Transporters (iGTs). Currently these activities are carried out separately by each iGT with xoserve only providing a limited centralised service for the industry as a whole. Whilst in the past there have been a number of industry discussions about centralisation of iGT services and realising benefits for the end consumer, these have never been concluded. SMART provides the industry with an opportunity to enable this to be resolved.

According to xoserve, SMART must not lead to fragmentation of systems and processes, and therefore introduce unnecessary costs, inefficiencies and the potential for duplication of data. Suppliers who operate in the AMR market account for just over 40% of gas throughput and will make a significant contribution to the UK meeting its carbon reduction target. However, from xoserve’s point of view there appears to be little benefit for the industry as a whole if AMR can opt in or out of the DCC as currently proposed.

Chris adds, “There is still a lot of detail to go through to ensure we have the right DCC model to maximise the benefits to end consumers and help the country meet its carbon reduction targets. However, it is clear to us that to meet the 2013 deadline we need to avoid unnecessary change and complexity. xoserve has been fully engaged in the industry discussions and we will continue to bring our expertise and knowledge to the fore in order to ensure the centralised data service and system provisions make SMART a success.”