The UK government has mandated that smart meters are rolled out as standard across Great Britain by end of 2020, and this roll-out is estimated to create £14 billion in net benefits to the UK in consumer energy savings and lower energy generation demand, according to the Oxford Economics report, “The Value of Smart Metering to Great Britain.” While smart-metering systems have been deployed in many countries, the roll-out in Great Britain is unique because it is led by energy retailers, who have responsibility for the Electricity and Gas meters. The decision to have a retailer-led roll out was made by DECC (Department of Energy and Climate Change) to improve customer experience and drive consumer benefits. It has also led to some unique system-level requirements to support the unique local regulatory model.

British Gas, part of Centrica plc, is the United Kingdom’s leading energy supplier. The utility serves 12 million households in Britain – nearly half of the country’s homes – as well as providing energy to one million UK businesses.

As part of the implementation of the Trilliant Platform in Great Britain, British Gas and Trilliant have worked closely together to ensure that the open standards used in the implementation are able to meet the unique requirements of Great Britain’s roll-out. By co-locating our project teams, Trilliant has been able to gain an in-depth understanding of the complex requirements that British Gas needs to implement in order to meet their regulatory requirements, improve their relationship with their customers and maintain their quality of service at all times. British Gas and Trilliant’s efforts have centred on connecting smart electric meters, gas meters and in-home smart energy devices, using the Trilliant Communications Hub. The Trilliant Hub, which is part of the Trilliant Communications Platform, enables customers to better track gas and electricity consumption, and make educated decisions about future energy use. It is fully compliant with the UK government smart meter specifications. For example, it allows customer to switch between credit and pre-payment payment modes, as well as allowing advanced time of use tariffs to be deployed. The Trilliant Platform enables British Gas to improve their customers overall satisfaction. The Trilliant Hub is fully integrated with the UnitySuite Head-End Software. This integration empowers British Gas to realize a full, secure, end-to-end solution from meter to back-office. UnitySuite is scalable to support millions of end-points, and offers the option to communicate with other devices in the home beyond the meter, and so is well suited to deliver British Gas their long-term ambitions.