Dean Keeling, Managing Director, British Gas Smart Homes

Stockley Park, U.K. --- (METERING.COM) --- September 21, 2012 - Britain’s smart meter rollout could lead to benefits of almost £14 billion through 2030, according to a new report from British Gas and Oxford Economics.

The report, which analyzes the costs and benefits of smart meters from 2012 to 2030, finds that whilst the national rollout to all homes and businesses in the country will cost £11.5 billion, the benefits of smart meters could amount to £25.3 billion – a net gain of nearly £14 billion, and a saving of around £65 on the average household energy bill.

The key benefits are:

• £11.2 billion from consumer energy savings, resulting from greater control and understanding of energy use
• £10.7 billion from efficiency savings for energy suppliers, with the savings passed on to consumers because of the highly competitive nature of the market
• £3.2 billion from generation related savings, due to the lower energy demand.

“Smart meters are good news for households, businesses and Britain – they are fundamentally changing how we use energy, bringing billions of pounds worth of benefits to Britain,” said Dean Keeling, managing director of British Gas Smart Homes. “The facts are plain: smart meters will help people save energy putting money in their back pocket.”

Of the savings, £21.8 billion will come from households and £3.5 billion from small businesses.

The smart metering costs are those from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

The calculation for consumer energy savings was based on a “conservative” 5 percent reduction in electricity and gas use by residential consumers and just under 5 percent for businesses.

The figure of almost £14 billion in net benefits is almost double the £7.2 billion benefit estimated in the DECC’s latest impact assessment. However, a detailed comparison will be necessary to determine where the assessments differ.

The British government requires all homes and businesses to have a smart meter installed by 2019. British Gas has installed over 600,000 smart meters so far.