I’ve been really impressed by the work a small team here has been doing with Microsoft on Smart Metering, and it has really got me thinking.
I was discussing my interest in the subject over a pint with a friend last week. I consider this friend to be very technology aware (he’s generally ahead of me in terms of technology adoption at least) but to him smart metering was a novelty.
Smart metering is already happening. It’s big in the states but is starting to take hold in the UK too. You can purchase a smart meter for electricity from Eon (amongst other places) or if you fancy something a bit more ‘designed’ try looking at
DIYKyoto.com. There has also been a fair bit of press on the subject.
Smart metering, along with Nike+, Wii fit and Fiat’s Ecodrive, fits in to the growing trend of
Life by Numbers, or as I like to call it Stats for Everyday Folk. But it seems that there is still some way to go before it becomes a talking point in the same way that these other examples have. It’s still yet to reach its tipping point.
Working on concepts to develop Smart Metering through more sophisticated interface design and functionality is definitely a great way to raise its profile but we also need to support this activity with some other thinking.
Firstly, I think we need to focus on the essence of what is attractive about smart metering, which is fairly close to the essence of Nike+, i.e. personalised feedback. Returning to the conversation I had in the pub, for my friend the mere fact that he might be able to monitor his own energy usage in terms of what it was costing him in real-time, and instantly be able to do something about it, was enough.
Secondly, we should also be thinking about the context in which Smart Metering will exist in the next five to ten years. Energy providers have been set the target of rolling out Smart Metering to every home in the UK by 2020. By that time will the ‘Millennials’, the kids who have known a world without internet access, be paying the bills? And how? Will they have more of a relationship with the Smart Meter in their lives? Or will it still just be a box under the stairs like it is for us?
And thirdly, as we develop concepts for Smart Metering we should think more like marketers and consider the proposition we are developing, and the benefits it brings to consumers, as well as interfaces and functionality.
By doing these things we can better understand the role that providers have to play in facilitating the relationship that consumers have with the numbers being generated. And for providers who are concerned about loyalty and engagement that can only be a good thing.