Smart meters essential to streamlining energy use

Streamlining energy use via smart metering will be a critical part of the process according to Ian Wallbank, Head of Legal & Corporate Services at energy management provider IMServ.

“The UK is the first country to make it compulsory for quoted companies to report on their emissions data in their annual Directors report,” says Wallbank. “This brings into the open a new metric. Shareholders will equate greater emissions with higher costs, leaving management vulnerable to questions regarding energy usage.”

Under these new regulations, companies will be required to disclose the methodology they use to calculate emissions.

“This puts a new emphasis on the need for companies to address energy consumption,” says Wallbank. “Smart metering technologies provide accurate real-time consumption data, flagging up unusual peaks in energy use, which enable organisations to change consumption behaviours, introduce monitoring devices and thus realise the energy savings and emissions reductions.

"Being smarter about consumption and communicating year-on-year savings in annual reports will be beneficial to both blue-chip businesses and stakeholders. 

"To my mind, the real emphasis needs to be on what is actually being reported, the story behind it, the planning for the future and perhaps more importantly, the likely impact all of this is going to have on key stakeholders and shareholders."

The annual report must include the annual quantity of emissions in tonnes of carbon dioxide resulting from the combustion of fuel and the operation of any facility, including those that are mobile, temporary and marine-based.