Multi-utility metering for residential customers in a competitive utility environment

This paper reviews issues relevant to residential metering for the rapidly-changing electricity and gas utilities in the UK. It examines the potential for, and practicability of, introducing competition into metering services, which is the aim of current regulatory policy. Competition in energy supply has been pioneered in the UK over the past 9 years, beginning with large industrial and commercial sites. Virtually the whole residential sector has new been opened up to competition and suppliers are offering both electricity and gas on a nationwide basis. This has brought major changes to the structure and nature of the industry over recent years, with more still to come. Change, in many different ways, will continue to be the watchword for the new competitive energy suppliers and their metering services providers. This continuous emphasis on change underscores the need to review the role of modular metering in the competitive multi-utility world.