I’ve been revising for my viva and was flipping through the DTI microgeneration strategy when I noticed a little mismatch, re: Ofgem’s demand reduction pilot (PDF). The original strategy says:
DTI will be investigating the possibility of a field trial that brings together smart meters and microgeneration to the effectiveness of smart meters combined with microgeneration technologies.
It’s a bit confusing but I would interpreted that as saying “We’re going to have a pilot looking at smart meters and microgeneration technologies working together”. To which, I’d say – great! Fantastic idea.
But when I looked at the Ofgem tender call a little more closely the word microgeneration doesn’t even appear. It’s very clearly about domestic demand reduction but the role of microgenerating households is unclear. This doesn’t mean that such a programme won’t eventually happen but it makes me wonder if, from a regulatory point of view, Ofgem is taking a strictly additive approach. That is, if they treat the benefits of microgeneration and smart metering/display monitors completely separately, they could look at a microgenerating household and a) determine that the household should get
It’s still early days and perhaps one of the tender bids will propose to investigate the demand reduction potential of microgeneration households specifically. But I think there’s a small risk that by considering demand reduction and microgeneration separately, any benefits from the interaction of the two will be lost. In other words, the 6% electricity saving that I saw in the PV households I studied (primarily arising from the use of a microgeneration generation-performance monitor) would fall between the regulatory cracks. Have to wait and see I guess!
