2.IV.iv. Status and encouragement of intelligent metering – OVERVIEW

In Austria, metering is one of the regulated activities of the electricity distribution system operators (DSOs) (§ 45 Z 10 ElWOG “Elektrizitätswirtschafts- und –organisationsgesetz: Electricity Industry and Organisation Act” 2010) . There is a similar decree regulating gas distribution system operators (§ 60 GWG 2011) and a law concerning the metering of heat and hot water consumption (§6 HeizKG “Heizkostenabrechnungsgesetz”).

The majority of the 6.1 million electrical metering points are still equipped with conventional electromechanical meters. Since the full liberalisation of the electricity market in 2001, about 30,000 customers with an annual consumption of more than 100,000 kWh and a power rating of more than 50 kW have been equipped with intelligent meters.

In an amendment to the Austrian Electricity Act (ElWOG) in 2011, the Minister for Economy was authorised to determine a mandatory rollout plan for intelligent electricity meters. In 2012, the Minister of Economy enacted a decree which obliges the DSOs to install intelligent meters. This decree was amended in 2014 and in 2017. It determines the following programme for the rollout:

• By the end of 2015, all network operators had to submit a rollout plan.
• Eighty per cent (80%) of all customers have to be equipped with intelligent meters by the end of 2020.
• Ninety-five per cent (95%) of all customers have to be equipped with intelligent meters by the end of 2022 within the scope of technical feasibility.

By the end of 2018, the majority of the Austrian DSOs were in the rollout phase. A self–assessment by the DSOs showed that, in December 2018, five (5) DSOs had already completed the rollout, 33 DSOs were in the rollout-phase, 56 DSOs had complemented the tenders and about 20 DSOs were still in earlier stages, e.g.,  first-try, pilot projects or planning.

About 950,000 customers (15.4% of all customers) were already equipped with intelligent meters. The network operators had another 357,000 intelligent meters already in stock or ordered to be installed in 2019.

According to recent plans, 40 network operators are on track to reach the target of 80% in 2020. Due to delays in the rollout of other network operators, it is expected that the intended overall implementation rate for 2020 will not be achieved. Estimations of the Energy Regulatory Authority assume that, by the end of 2019, about 20% of the customers were equipped with smart meters.

There are no comparable obligations for installing intelligent meters for gas in Austria for the time being.

Articles 14 and 15 of the EPBD (Directive 2010/31/EU) have been implemented according to an agreement²⁰ between Austrian provinces regarding regular on-site inspections and monitoring of the emissions of HVAC systems.

Since 2012, an annual subsidy of 368,188 € is provided for the development and availability of the tool NRClick⁸ for the Brussels Region’s communes. NRClick’s goal is to assist public authorities in their energy management (purchase, distribution, use, monitoring). NRClick helps public authorities to achieve their goals – mandatory or not – regarding energy efficiency. The programme is divided in three complementary sections:

• an energy accounting tool, NRClick Scan;
• a service that allows public authorities to access lucrative contracts regarding energy purchase and works of energy efficiency improvement;
• support in the organisation and monitoring of energy efficiency improvement projects.

The energy metering requirements of the installation regulations stipulate that all meters must be equipped with a device that allows remote data recording or reading, in order to facilitate automatic reading and processing of the measured data.

The energy performance regulations for technical building systems include requirements for energy metering of large installations. Table 8 gives an overview of the requirements. The presence of such metering systems is obligatory, but it has no direct impact on the energy performance of the building. The meters need to comply with standards, and they must transmit data by using a form of electronic communication. Intelligent metering of the whole building is not yet mandatory. The Flemish Government decided to introduce digital meters for electricity and gas in residential buildings starting from 2019. The introduction is gradual, starting with the replacement of limited and outdated meters and meters of households with a PV installation.

Table 8. Overview of legally required meters.

It is mandatory through the technical building system requirements to ensure that energy metering is undertaken for large installations. An overview is given in Table 12. The meters need to comply with harmonised standards and be readable either on-site or remotely. Smart metering is not yet mandatory.

Table 12. Energy metering requirements for large installations.

For the time being, no special measures to stimulate the introduction of intelligent metering systems are in place in Bulgarian legislation. However, the Energy Act obligates energy companies to provide customers of energy services related to electricity or natural gas supply with detailed information on the consumption. This is for every day, week, month and year, using smart metering systems, by providing the final customers data for a period covering not less than 24 previous months. This data can be provided to the customers via an internet portal or through the individual smart metering device in their building.

Promotion and encouragement to include intelligent metering is prescribed by the building act. Each building, depending on the type and purpose, must be designed and constructed so that it is possible, without significant costs, to ensure individual metering of energy and water consumption, with the possibility to have remote readings for individual and separate parts of the building.

The Energy Management Information System – EMIS - is a web application for monitoring and analysing energy and water consumption in public sector buildings. EMIS provides a transparent oversight and control of energy consumption, making itself an inevitable tool for systematic energy management.

The Distribution System Operator plans to install 400,000 smart electricity meters by January 2027. The meters will provide real-time information on electricity consumption and generation in buildings, helping end-consumers optimise energy use. In addition, this information can be particularly useful to building owners and investors, in order to implement optimal energy saving and RES measures.

Smart metering in the field of heat and electricity in the Czech Republic is on a voluntary basis. Currently, 61% of electric meters in the Czech Republic are smart meters with continuous metering. There are currently no incentives supporting the installation of smart meters.

Technical building systems with significant energy consumption must have individual meters installed if energy consumption exceeds a certain level.

Table 4. Minimum annual energy use that triggers metering for individual parts of technical building systems.

In new buildings or existing buildings undergoing major renovations with more than one owner, metering equipment must be installed in the heating system to determine the use of the heating energy in the different parts of the building. Intelligent metering does not factor in the energy efficiency calculations or requirements. 

Intelligent metering (hourly-based metering) has been introduced almost everywhere in Finland following the introduction of legislation on the energy markets in 2009. This legislation sets requirements for companies operating in the production and distribution of energy to offer end-users up-to-date information on energy consumption as well as services to improve end-user energy efficiency.

By 2018, 99,8% of electricity metering points are metered hourly and read remotely (automatic meter reading). In district heating, 99% of heat sales are read remotely and 84% are metered hourly.

By law, it has been mandatory to install individual meters for cold and warm water in new buildings since 2011. It is not mandatory to use the readings as a basis for billing. The same applies to the renovation of buildings.

Intelligent metering enables the collection of useful data that can be shown in EPCs. Meters relate to the building as a whole and do not target individual HVAC systems.

Requirements (for e.g., cooling and ventilation systems, electricity or AC metering) enable active energy-savings control.

Intelligent meters for both electricity (‘Linky’) and gas (‘Gazpar’) are being widely deployed, with a target of full national coverage by 2021. The Electricity and Gas Networks of France (Enedis and GRDF) carry out the deployment. There are no requirements for intelligent metering for individual technical building systems.

Wide installation of these meters has started in mid-2015 and by the end of 2016, 2.7 million meters were installed. Enedis set a target of 7 million meters installed by the end of 2017.

The Act on the Digitisation of the Energy Transition (2016) bridges the gap between providing the energy sector with a reliable framework for investment and achieving wider acceptance for smart meters among consumers. It sets out clear rules stipulating who is required to use smart meters, and who can use smart meters as an option.

For consumers, this depends on the amount of electricity that is consumed annually, whereas for producers, this depends on the amount of capacity that is installed. Not all consumers and producers will be required to install smart meters right away. Small-scale consumers and producers are required to install smart meters since 2020, so they can benefit from the lessons learnt by those groups that have introduced smart meters right from the start.

New rules on price caps play a crucial role. These price caps will ensure that the costs and benefits of installing and operating a smart meter will be proportionate. They are based upon the potential benefits that accrue from the use of smart meters, as calculated by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy in its cost-benefit analyses²².

By keeping costs at a proportionate level whilst providing grid operators with a reliable framework for devising their rollout strategy, this helps achieve wider acceptance for smart meters among consumers and plant operators.

Law 4342/2015 foresees that final customers for electricity, natural gas, district heating, district cooling and domestic hot water are provided with competitively priced individual metering devices that accurately reflect the final customer’s actual energy consumption, providing information on actual time of use. Such meters shall be provided whenever an existing meter is replaced or a new connection is made, unless this is technically impossible or not cost-effective in relation to the estimated potential savings in the long term.

In Greece, according to the provisions of Law 4001/2011, the responsible body for the electricity meters is the Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator (HEDNO S.A). HEDNO S.A. has already installed electronic meters for all medium voltage consumers and around 60,000 meters for low voltage consumers with high consumptions (large consumers).

One of the basic conditions for the active participation of consumers in the market is the creation of controllability of consumption where this is not yet possible today. In the electricity and natural gas sectors, the much wider use of smart meters, the proper construction of heating centers for district-heated dwellings, the controllability of systems and the widespread use of cost-sharing, and the active management of distributors will enable consumers to operate. They can get accurate information about the development of their energy consumption, competitive service tariff offers from their service provider, while maintaining and improving the quality of the service. The National Energy and Climate Plan¹⁴ adopted by the Government of Hungary on 8 January 2020 states that the goal is to install 1 million smart meters in the electricity sector. It is planned to stipulate that, if certain conditions are met, traditional meters can only be replaced by smart meters when they expire, the cost of which should not be borne by consumers. In parallel, universal service providers and commercial licensees are planned to be required to offer flexible tariff package offers to their customers with smart meters to encourage better network utilisation. It is also included in the draft Long-Term Renovation Strategy, and it seriously addresses the opportunities, obligations and vision for the deployment of smart meters.

The National Smart Metering Programme was established by the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) and is the delivery plan for the roll out of smart meters across Ireland. The Electricity Supply Board (ESB) Networks⁷ have been tasked with the delivery of the roll out programme, which involves upgrading all of Ireland’s electricity meters to smart meters.

Ireland’s smart meter upgrade programme is part of the national Climate Action plan. Smart meters will support Ireland's transition to a low carbon future by enabling the development of smart grids, and supporting the electrification of heat and transport, local RES generation and microgeneration. From 2021, electricity supply companies will begin to offer new smart products and services, which will enable a shift of part of the consumption to times of the day when electricity is cheaper.

Smart meters will significantly reduce the need for estimated bills, make the supplier switching process easier and empower customers to make more informed choices for their energy needs. Smart metering will also allow ESB Networks to find faults quicker and manage the electricity network more efficiently. 

The roll out began in 2019 and is being delivered on a phased basis until 2024. By the end of 2020, it is envisaged that 250,000 meters will have been replaced and approximately 500,000 meters will be installed in each of the four years thereafter.

Smart meters are regulated by Article 9 of Legislative Decree 102/2014 (EED 1^st transposition). In Italy, the roll-out of the 'first generation' of electricity smart meters started in 2006 and was completed in 2011. ENEL, the main Italian distribution system operator, has installed 32 million smart meters in Italy. 

The Italian Regulatory Authority has set standards for 'second-generation' (2G) smart meters for electricity, gas and water (Deliberation 87/2016). The 2G devices are rich in advanced features that allow consumers to have significant advantages by enabling the use of home automation systems.

The replacement of smart meters with new ones has started in 2018 and is expected to be completed in 2024.

The installation of smart meters is financed through a small annual contribution from gas bills, and they will measure gas, water and electricity consumption and, in some cases, other services such as distributed heating, public lighting and waste collection.

Since 2018, the White Certificates incentive mechanism added a new eligible action called 'behavioural measures', aimed at supporting smart devices which make the end user able to analyse energy consumption data, to be warned against strange energy consumption values, and to manage technical building systems in an efficient way.

For new buildings or first-level major renovation of buildings (Decree of 26.06.2015), smart metering devices of energy consumption are mandatory and, in case of centralised heating, it is mandatory to install devices able to count heating, cooling and domestic hot water.

In 2015, Latvia amended Cabinet Regulation No. 876 of 21 October 2008, 'Regulations Regarding the Supply and Use of Thermal Energy'. The amendments state that in multi-family apartment buildings and non-residential buildings in which owners of apartments have to mutually divide the bill for the consumed thermal energy (the bill presents an overall consumption of the whole building), the authorised person shall divide the amount of consumed thermal energy using measuring devices installed in each apartment. If the use of such measuring devices is not technically possible or profitable, heat-cost allocators shall be used. This requirement has been in force for buildings that received their building permit after 1 January 2016 and whose thermal energy is provided from a central source.

Since 1 July 2016, all new gas and electricity meters installed in Luxembourg are smart meters. From 2016 to 2020, the plan has been to replace all existing electricity and gas meters with smart meters. In order to optimise operating costs, all meters will be read via a central system managed by an entity set up by the grid operators, Luxmetering GIE¹². Besides electricity and gas meters, the system will be open to other flows such as water and urban heat. The rollout of smart meters for electricity and natural gas will be practically completed in 2020, as almost all conventional meters have been replaced by smart ones.

Each customer has received information about the meter's functionality, its use and the use of its data. Frequently asked questions and a point of contact are available on each grid operator’s website as well as in leaflets distributed to customers. In 2020, electricity and gas suppliers have started offering additional services based on the smart meter data.

In the Maltese energy context, the energy generation and distribution sector is dominated by a single corporation which has invested considerably in the transition to intelligent metering in recent years. Intelligent metering has been introduced in the vast majority of buildings, and intelligent meters have been in use for more than eight years in most buildings. This has enabled real-time monitoring of energy use and further plans are prepared for additional developments in this area.

Smart metering is supplemented by the development of online portals enabling consumers to monitor their daily consumption. This measure has enabled the identification of leaks and associated reduction in the energy intensive water production by desalination. The ability to view daily consumption has increased awareness, enabling consumers to monitor usage.

Minimum standards for the metering of general and display lighting are referred to in Technical Document F, Part 2. The same document also specifies the minimum requirements for control and minimum efficiency for systems in various building services, including lighting, domestic hot water and space heating services.

In recent years, the use of energy consumption management systems that can be linked to the smart meter has risen significantly. In addition, it is estimated that 75% of households now have a smart meter.

Table 8 shows a strong growth in applications (P1 real time data and P4 day after data) from the energy companies. Sales numbers are available from the independent service providers (mostly P1 applications).

Table 8. Realisation of use of energy consumption management systems (broken down to P1 or P4 service) (in million users) (Source: Energie-Nederland).

Figure 7 shows a strong growth in energy use data requests, which means people use the application and look at the data.

Figure 7. Number of energy use data requests on a monthly basis (Source: NEDU P4-rapportage 2019)

In 2019, the grid managers realised 1,197,000 smart meter placements. Up to and including 2019, a total of 6.4 million (more than 76% of the target of 8.6 million) of offers were realised.

Since 2019, all customers of electricity have an advanced consumption meter. This allows for automatic reading and facilitates further installation of various intelligent systems for management and control.

There are requirements to have meters for heat energy used for space heating and domestic hot water in new non-residential buildings and apartment blocks. The purpose of these measurements is to encourage energy management.

The amendment to the Energy Law published on 9 November 2018 introduced the obligation for energy companies to install smart remote meters for 80% of electricity consumers in Poland by the end of 2026.

As of 2018, smart meters were installed by approximately 8.4% of recipients (European average of 34.2%), most of them in northern Poland. In order to accelerate the transformation of the power grid, a draft act amending the Energy Act was submitted to the legislative work of the Council of Ministers. The draft act specifies the schedule of smart meter installation by the electricity distribution system operator for end customers connected to the grid, with a voltage of no more than 1 kV and within the following periods: by the end of 2023 at least 15%, by the end of 2025 at least 35 %, by the end of 2027 at least 65%, and by the end of 2028 at least 80% of end users. The draft also requires the installation of remote reading meters at power stations, reforming the average voltage to low by the end of 2025. The draft act is currently being considered by the Committee for European Affairs. The obligation to equip by 1 January 2027 heat and water meters with a function enabling remote reading in premises of multi-apartment buildings is imposed by the draft amendment to the Energy Efficiency Act (number from the UC41 list), which was submitted for public consultation on 20 August 2020.

Since 2014, it is mandatory for non-residential buildings to have energy consumption monitoring for heating, ventilation and AC systems equipment with electric power above 25 kW. The same is applicable also for boilers with a thermal power above 100 kW.

Buildings with thermal power above 25 kW must have an installation and maintenance technician (TIM) that guarantees proper system installation and maintenance. This technician must also supervise the specific activities and manage all relevant technical information. One of their tasks is to promote the installation of energy metering systems in the buildings.

The requirements are to encourage the installation of building management systems in non-residential buildings with more than 250 kW of heating, ventilation and AC systems power output.

Decrees 358/2013¹² and 168/2015¹³ were adopted following a cost-benefit analysis of Distribution System Operators (DSOs). The decrees set that at least 80% of the delivery points for final customers whose annual electricity consumption is more than 4 MWh shall be equipped with an intelligent metering system (IMS) by December 2020.

The supplier of heat and domestic hot water is obliged to provide the customer with a meter that shows the actual heat consumption as well as the time of consumption. Similar obligations are also valid for gas supplies (especially medium- and large-use customers).

The Regulatory Office for Network Industries (RONI) encourages DSOs to accelerate the deployment of intelligent metering before the deadlines stated in Decree 168/2015, provide advice and information to customers, update the displayed measurement data frequently enough so they can be used to save energy, create, design and offer standardised interfaces, which would enable energy management in 'real time', and provide measurement results directly to the customer.

Intelligent metering does not in itself generate energy savings, since savings are generated by the actions of the occupants based on the information from the metering system; therefore, such systems are not part of the normalised energy performance calculation. As such, their installation does not influence the energy class of the building in the EPC or in the energy label.

According to the amendment of Act 555/2005, the owner of the building is required to equip the new building with self-regulating devices for individual regulation of the internal temperature in each heated room and in each heated individual part. The owner is also obliged to equip the heated rooms of the existing building and the existing heated individual parts with self-regulating devices when replacing the heat production equipment. In both cases, this obligation applies if the installation is technically and economically feasible.

Slovenia plans to replace up to 80% of the existing electricity meters with smart meters by the year 2023. Cohesion funding is available specifically for this process. Companies owning electricity networks are eligible for a 33% co-financing of the investment with a total available budget of 13.9 million € in the 2017-2022 period. The Decree on measures and procedures for the introduction and interoperability of advanced electric power metering systems¹⁹ (2015) supported the introduction of intelligent meters.

By the end of 2020, 82.9% of end users have been equipped with smart meters for electricity, while 78.4% have been involved in remote meter reading.

The Act on Energy Efficiency (Part 4) prescribes that the system operator must ensure that end-customers are introduced with advanced metering systems to encourage them to actively participate in the natural gas supply market. The Agency must carry out a cost-effectiveness assessment of the introduction of advanced metering systems, which includes an assessment of the long-term costs and benefits for the market and the individual customer, an economic viability and cost-effectiveness assessment for various advanced metering options, and an assessment of the best timeframe for their introduction.

New multi-apartment buildings and other multi-storey buildings that have a central heating or cooling source or are supplied by district heating or district cooling systems must be equipped with individual meters specifically to measure heat consumption for heating, cooling and domestic hot water. In multi-family buildings and other buildings with at least four individual parts that have a central heating or cooling source or are supplied by a district heating or cooling system, owners must ensure the installation of individual meters to measure the actual heat consumption of an individual part of the building. Heating cost meters and allocators must be devices with remote reading.

The aid programmes support energy improvement measures only if the energy performance rating of the building shows an improvement of at least one energy class. The actual improvement of the energy performance must be shown, analysed and tested by the official certification programme. Therefore, in order to achieve the necessary improvement to qualify for aid support and opt for the grants, one of the aspects to consider is the inclusion of intelligent metering systems. Intelligent metering is thus indirectly encouraged through the above-mentioned aid programmes.

Regulation regarding power and/or heat distribution grids

Since 2018, the Ordinance of Electricity (1999:716) contains requirements regarding the following: the measurement, calculation and reporting of transferred electricity; provisions stating that measuring equipment should have an open customer interface, with the possibility for the electricity user to obtain detailed information; and the provision for remotely read electricity meters. The requirements will be mandatory in 2025. Previously, monthly reading requirements applied. Many electricity meters have been changed in the 2010s to ones that can be read remotely.

There is no existing corresponding requirement for remote reading of district heating meters, but monthly reading, either manually or automatically, applies in that case as well.

The Swedish Energy Markets Inspectorate (Energimarknadsinspektionen) has a supervisory responsibility for legal requirements related to the measurement of the electricity network and district heating companies.

Regulation regarding buildings

BBR requires that the building's energy use can be continuously monitored through a measurement system. The measurement shall be readable in such way that the building's energy consumption for the desired period can be determined (BFS 2016:13).

As general advice, the reading of energy measurements should be made readily available to the subscriber, in or adjacent to the building (BFS 2020:4).

In addition to the smart meter roll out (see section 2.IV.i for details), metering requirements are included in the ADs for new and existing non‐residential buildings⁷. The aim is to enable occupiers to meter at least 90% of the estimated annual energy consumption and to assign energy to the various end uses. The ADs for non-residential buildings reference industry best practice for meters installation. Automatic meter reading and data collection must be provided in new non‐residential buildings greater than 1,000 m².

See England report for details.

An approach similar to England was adopted. See England report and Technical Booklets for details. Technical Booklet F2 (non‐domestic buildings)⁸ references industry best practice.

The UK Government aims for all homes in Great Britain (i.e. excluding Northern Ireland) to be offered a smart meter by the end of 2020. A policy decision has not yet been made on the rollout of smart meters in Northern Ireland. Some energy suppliers started installing smart meters in 2014. The Northern Ireland Department for the Economy has responsibility in this area and consulted on this issue in its recent Call for Evidence on an Energy Strategy³¹.

Energy metering requirements are included in the “Technical Handbook Non‐domestic”³ buildings. Each building (or part) should be fitted with fuel and power meters. Sub‐metering should allow monitoring of end uses. The handbook references industry best practice, e.g., CIBSE TM 39⁴¹. Automatic meter reading is referenced as good practice but is not mandated.

There are no metering requirements for domestic buildings in the “Technical Handbook Domestic”² buildings. See England report for details about the smart meter roll out which applies to Scotland.