The SmartRegions project
The directive on energy end-use efficiency and energy services (ESD) sets 9 % energy saving target by 2016, and EU has set an objective to reduce energy consumption by 20 % by 2020. However, recent estimates suggest that current measures can achieve energy savings of only about 13 % by 2020. In addition, the ESD Article 13 sets the basic community legislation for energy metering and informative billing. Yet the EC has estimated that the use of new energy metering and billing systems should grow at a faster rate to fulfill the requirements of the ESD.
SmartRegions - promoting the uptake of innovative smart metering services
- Monitoring the smart metering landscape in European countries, and giving recommendations for the national regulatory frameworks to promote smart metering services
- Defining the best practices of innovative smart metering services and analysing the economic, environmental and social costs and benefits
- Promoting the best practices of innovative smart metering services in the project regions, and promoting the exemplary smart metering regions as models for other Member States and regions
The long-term objectives of the project
- To achieve a significant increase in efficient smart metering services offered to end-users,
- To enable Member States to reach the targets of the Energy Services Directive,
- To efficiently include smart metering services in the future national and EU legislation, in a way that it fosters the wide uptake of smart metering services and their potential to achieve energy savings and peak load reduction
The strategic results of the project include that innovative smart metering services will spread to other regions and Member States, and become business-as-usual in Member States, leading to better energy management and significant energy savings in the long term (at least the estimated 10 % potential realised).
The immediate major outputs and results of the SmartRegions project
- The situation of smart metering in Europe is monitored to gather information for supporting the policy development. Based on this, the national ESD Article 13 implementation and the future national and EU policy development for smart metering is supported, with recommendations disseminated to:
- 5000 national parliament members and 30 public authorities responsible for energy efficiency issues in EU27 countries and Norway
- 27 ESD Concerted Action representatives of the EU27 countries
- EC officials and to all 785 European parliament members
- The best practises of innovative smart metering services are defined and promoted to the project regions and the exemplary "SmartRegions” are identified
- As a result, smart metering services are provided to over 2500 households and 80 public/commercial buildings
- The criteria for assessing the economic, environmental and social costs and benefits of smart metering services is defined, and a web-based cost-benefit tool is developed for this (building on the tool developed in the IEE-project ESMA)
- At least 1000 tool users from the website during the project duration
- Distribution of tool to at least 10 target group members and key actors in every participating country
