Study: Smart Meters May Not Reduce Energy Use
Voici un travail passionnant réalisé par Sarah Darby, du Centre de l’environnement à l’université d’Oxford, et publié dans la revue Building research and information. Une réflexion poussée sur la manière dont les compteurs peuvent être acceptés par le public, et les économies qu’on peut en attendre et à quelle condition. On nous dit que les compteurs intelligents feront économiser 15% d’électricité. Un chiffre bien théorique puisqu’il laisse penser que le compteur est un magicien de la chasse au gaspi. Ces économies ne se feront que si chaque usager décide de réduire sa consommation, et d’agir en conséquence. Pour Sarah Darby, si l’économie constatée peut atteindre 15%, elle peut tout aussi bien être trois fois plus faible. Et là où il existe un service internet de suivi de consommation, seules 2 à 4% des clients le consultent régulièrement. D’ailleurs, une autre étude publiée dans la même revue montre, sur un panel d’usagers néerlandais que l’économie réelle a été de 7,8% sur les quatre premiers mois, mais que moins d’un an après, le chiffre revient à seulement 1,9%.
Any energy-use reduction associated with smart metering depends heavily on social factors, say Oxford researchers. The use of smart meters to cut energy consumption is far from straightforward, and will depend on both business and social considerations, according to new research from the University of Oxford. The research, carried out by Sarah Darby of the university’s Environmental Change Institute (ECI) and published in the journal Building Research and Information last week, found that a reduction of energy demand “did not flow naturally from improved billing information”.The study examined how householders used feedback on their energy consumption with and without smart meters.
Smart meters are designed to improve the accuracy of energy billing. In some countries, including the UK, they are also designed to provide feedback to consumers, allowing them to form a more accurate picture of their own energy consumption, and thus make better-informed choices, in theory reducing their power consumption and the related carbon emissions.Smart metering is also intended to facilitate the development of smart grids, which integrate the actions of all users connected to them in order to efficiently deliver sustainable, economic and secure electricity supplies.
However, previous studies have shown that the technology on its own does not necessarily lead to changes in consumer habits, and the new study backed this up. Darby’s research found that the technology must be accompanied by education in order to be effective.
“There is the potential to use (advanced metering infrastructure) for demand reduction if there is a strong strategic intention to do so, and if the social support is there,” Darby said in the paper.
In a separate study in the same journal, Delft University of Technology academics found that the short-term benefits of smart metering did not necessarily translate into longer-term changes in habits. The Dutch study found that smart meters initially provided electricy consumption savings of 7.8 percent after four months, but this was not sustained over the following 11 months. “Participants who kept the monitor (…) did not manage to sustain their electricity savings any better than those without a monitor,” the researchers wrote. The research also found that the results varied with different social groups. “A second finding is that certain groups of people seem more receptive to energy-saving interventions than others. A ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach for home energy monitors cannot be justified.”
