With the cost of living rising, Britons are keener than ever to be energy efficient, according to a YouGov poll carried out for the Energy Retail Association (ERA). The research shows that 96 per cent of people think it’s important to be more energy efficient to reduce the size of their energy bills. In addition, 70% believed that new smart metering technology, which allows energy customers to see how much they are spending in real time, would help them reduce consumption.

Smart meters will rid consumers of the uncertainty of estimated bills and enable them to conserve energy, by allowing both gas and electricity consumption to be tracked in real time. Information on consumption is then shared automatically with the energy company and will be available to the customer on a dedicated hand-held display, and possibly also on their computer or mobile phone.

Smart meters will also allow people who generate their own electricity at home from such sustainable sources as wind and solar energy – known as microgeneration – to sell it back to the national grid. This would reduce energy bills further, while also helping the environment. Three out of four (75 per cent) of the people surveyed found the concept of microgeneration appealing.

The ERA believes that smart meters are the next generation of electricity and gas meters. They are calling on the government to mandate their roll-out to every home in the country.

Duncan Sedgwick, chief executive of the ERA, said:

“Consumers are feeling the pinch in many areas at present and so saving energy is more important than ever. It is clear that the public want to save energy and be more energy efficient but they don’t yet have the tools to do this.

“Both consumers and the industry believe that smart meters will make a big difference in helping people to change their behaviour and use less energy. Now it’s up to government to set a clear timetable and give industry a mandate to install them in every British home.”

Cassie Higgs, Senior Policy Advocate, National Consumer Council (NCC) welcomes the opportunity smart meters offer for saving money:

“Smart meters give consumers clear information and greater control over their energy use, helping us all to consume energy more responsibly. Also, by providing suppliers with accurate energy readings, they would make estimated bills, which are a major consumer gripe, a thing of the past”.

79 per cent believe it is important that the introduction of smart meter technology will eliminate many of the costs of providing a pre-pay meter and more tariff options will be available to these customers. Moreover, 73 per cent would be interested in these new energy tariffs. Customers are expected to be able to choose a tariff with varying prices for energy depending on what time of day the energy is use – allowing cheaper energy during off-peak periods. Older people were most enthusiastic about the benefits the new technology will bring, particularly on the issue of new tariffs. 35-44 year-olds were also overwhelmingly in favour of variable tariffs, with 77% expressing an interest in them.

70 per cent of consumers believe that it is important to be able to switch instantly between pay monthly and pay as you go tariffs for buying electricity and gas, just as they can with mobile phones. This was most appealing to 25 to 34 year-olds with 75 per cent seeing the importance of this flexibility, compared with 68 per cent of over 55s.

For further information, please contact:
Claire Gibson - Press Officer for the Energy Retail Association on 020 7747 5432

The Energy Retail Association (ERA), formed in 2003, represents the major electricity and gas suppliers in the domestic market in Great Britain. All the main energy suppliers operating in the residential market in Great Britain are members of the association - British Gas, EDF Energy, E.ON, npower, Scottish Power, and Scottish and Southern Energy.

The Energy White Paper, published in May 2007, supported the ERA’s view that Smart Meters could be rolled out to 25 million homes for gas and electricity within 10 years. More information on the ERA’s work on smart meters can be found on our website at http://www.energy-retail.org.uk/smartmeters.html. The Energy White Paper can be downloaded from the DBERR website: http://www.berr.gov.uk/energy/whitepaper/page39534.html.

The Energy Consultation Response can be downloaded from DBEER website: http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/review/implementation/billing-metering/cons-responses/page37482.html

All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 1,961 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 18th and 20th December 2007. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).

Further information on Smart Meters is available from the ERA website: http://www.energy-retail.org.uk/smartmeters.html

Morristown, NJ – The TM Forum announced today that it has been working with the UK Government to establish a new industry program aimed at serving the procurement needs of large-scale end-user organizations. These buyers purchase IT and communications technology on a scale equivalent to many service providers and as such many of the Forum’s standards and guidelines and best practices are directly applicable.

The TM Forum has traditionally mainly served the needs of the telecom industry. However, with growing convergence of technologies spurring a major change in the demarcation lines between telecom, cable, media and web players that position is changing very quickly. The same underlying driver, technology convergence, is also changing the picture for many large-scale consumers of communications and IT technologies. No longer are these separate strands of their procurement requirements, the needs for an integrated procurement approach are rising with the advent of convergent approaches such as: Service Oriented computing architectures (SOA), all IP networking, and advanced Service Delivery Platforms.

The needs of large scale service providers are becoming indistinguishable from the needs of large-scale users such as government departments, defense industries, aerospace and financial services industries.

Andrew Bull Head of Infrastructure, Strategy and Architecture for the UK’s Revenue and Customs departments commented “We need to ensure the best value for money for UK taxpayers in our investments in IT and communications. Following international standards is one of the ways we can do that and we are delighted to be trail-blazing a new approach to working with an international trade association like the TM Forum. We hope other governments and large scale buyers will follow our lead.”

Martin Creaner, TM Forum President said “This is a natural extension of our work with service providers around the world - convergence is making the needs of users and service providers ever more aligned. Standards allow economies of scale that these ultra large buyers want to tap into. We are delighted to establish a new program aimed at meeting these needs.” The new program is expected to focus on ensuring that clear procurement guides can be developed to help large-scale buyers drive to standards in their procurements and market education.”

An initial meeting to launch the “Large Scale Buyers” program is going to be held at the TM Forum Management World, in Nice on the 21st at 1pm in the Euterpe room. The meeting is Open to all conference attendees.

About the TM Forum
With almost 700 members in 72 countries, the TM Forum is the world’s leading trade association focused on management of information, communications and entertainment services. The Forum provides leadership, strategic guidance and practical solutions to improve the way that services are created, delivered, assured and charged. Members include the majority of the world’s service providers, network operators, software suppliers, equipment suppliers and systems integrators.

The Forum currently facilitates over 80 technical programs and provides extensive training, conferencing and information services to its members. Through its initiatives to help providers move to 21st century ‘lean’ processes, the Forum helps its members automate business processes by deploying operational systems that will work seamlessly across various parts of the service delivery chain. The organization provides industry benchmarks, guidebooks, process and software frameworks and specific ‘plug and play’ standards. These give service providers the direction and specific roadmaps to achieve much greater business efficiency and operational flexibility.

For further information regarding the TM Forum, related programs such as the Prosspero initiative and its Management World conferences, please visit www.tmforum.org