The Low Carbon Economy Ltd

20 Oct 2010 10:10:07

UK's largest smart grid project unveiled

Homes and businesses in the north-east and Yorkshire are to benefit from the largest smart grid project ever to take place in the UK.

Some 14,000 homes are due to take part in the £54 million project, which will aim to assess the impact of electric cars, solar panels and other low carbon technologies on the electricity grid.

All homes taking part in the study will install smart meters, while 1,500 will use air or ground source heat pumps, 800 will install solar PV panels and 150 will drive electric cars.

The findings will then be applied to the whole of the UK using data from 160,000 smart meters. Solutions will then be trialled to see how the capabilities of the grid can be improved.

Durham, Leeds, Newcastle and Sheffield are among the major cities participating in the project, which is being supported by CE Electric, British Gas, Durham Energy Institute and EA Technology.

Phil Bentley, managing director of British Gas, said: "It is vital that Britain makes the transition to a low carbon economy - and no single company has all the answers."

Figures released from Ofgem recently, in relation to the Feed-in Tariffs, revealed that solar panels account for 97 percent of installations under the scheme ADNFCR-1235-ID-800125796-ADNFCR

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norway wrote:

25 Oct 2010

Can I ask the journalist that wrote this or received this as a press release to reply if any of the facts were checked. The sums involved do not appear to add up.

14,000 smart meters at 500 pounds each is 7million (Utilities should pay this and expense it or be granted an accelerated depreciation allowance)
1500 heat pumps at an average of 2,000 pounds installed is 3 million
800 3kW PV sets is around 15,000 pounds installed 12 million pounds
150 electric cars at 40,000 pounds 6 million pounds

Where does the 160,000 smart meters come from. It is out of context in this article.

Totals come to 28 million pounds and 26 million in other costs?

This peppering of numbers that from many readers perspective do not stand scrutiny weakens belief in any numbers being used in this forum.

If some of the cost is born by the homes taking part that would reduce the costs even more.

Please reveal your source for this article and the material behind the quantities that come to 54 million pounds.

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