2022 was a punishing year for households and businesses on a number of fronts, as the UK navigated its way through a severe inflationary crisis.
One area where many were (and continue to be) particularly affected is through the price volatility and uncertainty both domestic consumers and businesses experienced in their energy supply, particularly in the autumn and winter of 2022.
These uncertainties have provided a powerful impulse to many to consider their supply arrangements and explore options for taking more control over their own energy supply and consumption requirements. This has typically manifested itself in a renewed interest in smart meters, for those who had not had them installed already, as a way of better managing and understanding the cost of their energy, together with renewed interest in solar capture and home battery storage technologies as a means of more proactively managing cost and ensuring a degree of back-up power contingency.
This increased interest comes during a period of accelerating EV adoption, a subject matter we have separately discussed as part of our 2023 prediction series.
Putting aside considerations centred around the transition to net zero, it instead seems likely that a combination of experiences in 2022 - lifestyle choices driven through the accelerating adoption of EVs and in-home smart devices - coupled with a desire to better manage cost through smart tariffs and storage systems will help to drive ongoing adoption of smart meters in 2023. This will most likely be supported by ongoing government subsidy and incentive programmes and industry initiatives such as the Demand Flexibility Service currently being trialled by National Grid and certain suppliers.
Commercial users have been subject to the same pressures and strains (with less government support) and we can expect to see the accelerating electrification of the UK’s commercial vehicle fleet, coupled with grid scale storage solutions representing opportunities to begin engaging in a more meaningful way with the types of vehicle-to-grid initiatives which have been discussed for some time but have not, as yet, achieved critical mass.
It seems that these factors are all contributing to an environment in 2023 where the continuing increase in demand for EVs and interest in home-generation and storage may align to accelerate the adoption of smart meter technologies in both domestic and commercial settings.
Looking past 2023 into the medium to longer term, as EVs, residential renewable generation and storage technologies all become prevalent across a market where the majority of meter points have a smart connection, this should, over time, create the conditions where vehicle-to-grid or battery-to-grid solutions, at scale, become a real possibility. Coupled with AI innovation, these will begin to play a significant role in achieving better grid balance and higher overall levels of renewables usage in the UK.
