British utility execs fuzzy on which network technology they want for smart meter rollouts

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The folks who make the big decisions at British utilities are fuzzy about which network technology they want for their smart meter rollouts, but there's no confusion about what they want from it when they get around to making a choice. According to

You might also be interested in ... . BT and partners propose secure long range radio solution from Sensus for Great Britain’s national smart meter rollout . Smart meters, who cares? Survey says most British consumers don't . Smart meters by mandate: 96.3 million European households should have them by 2014 . Smart grid metering technologies .

research conducted by smart grid communications and metering company Sensus, 67% of research participants interviewed consider network security a must have. Reliable meter readings and high first-time connection rates also are high on the list. Global telecommunications giant Vodafone estimated that only 70% of homes in the UK have cellular coverage to their meters. And Sensus says poor connection rates mean more customer complaints, higher deployment costs and possible effects on the benefits of the overall meter deployment. Sensus is recommending that the British government, which has committed to having smart meters in every home by 2020, use long-range radio for the meter network, citing universal coverage and a first-time connection rate of 99.5%.

Quick Take: Yes, we know. Sensus uses long-range radio in its FlexNet^TM metering system and obviously has a lot to gain if the British government picks the technology for its metering initiative. That said, the Sensus solution has a lot of support from some major smart grid players because of its reliability and security.

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