A Cost-benefit analysis rejects Nationwide Roll-Out of Smart Meters

An important news item for readers outside of Ontario: Ernst & Young have performed a cost-benefit analysis for the German government which concludes consumers would be needlessly punished by meeting a European Union quota on smart meter installations.

For readers inside Ontario, simply another reminder of the stupidity of McGuinty's immature roll-out of both smart meters and solar procurement policies, whereby Grandma has a meter for her low usage hovel but nobody can tell you how much contracted supply is being produced, when it is being produced, or at what cost to end consumers.

No Nationwide Roll-Out of Smart Meters Recommended According to Cost-Benefit Analysis « German Energy Blog: 

The German Federal Ministry of Economics (BMWi) has published a study analyzing the costs and benefits of a full roll-out of smart meters in Germany. It concludes that it is not advisable and not in the interest of German consumers to implement the EU targets which would require that at least 80 % of consumers shall be equipped with intelligent meter­ing systems by 2020.

...The study comes to the conclusion that smart meters in particular for small consumers are not cost-efficient, as the potential savings would be well below actual costs of smart meters and their operation. Therefore, it would not be reasonable to impose the 80 % target on German utilities and consumers.
Rather, the study advocates a roll-out which takes into account the particular challenges of the German “Energiewende” by focusing on the interoperability of smart meters and renewable energy generation facilities and decentralized concepts. It outlines and further analyses options for such an alternative roll-out which, for most customers, makes use of the usual replacement cycles of meters. It sets fort requirements for a expedite installation of smart meters where this is more efficient, e.g. if used in combination with decentralized renewable energy supply solutions, which also can be subject to intelligent feed-in and demand side management concepts. Thereby the costs of implementing smart meters can be reduced substantially

Read the full article at the German Energy Blog