The rollout of smart meters has the potential to aid the decarbonization of the Irish energy system and contribute to the achievement of EU and European Commission targets. The Internal Market in Electricity Directive (2009\/72\/EC) mandates the provision of smart meters for 80% of consumers by 2020 subject to cost benefit analysis conducted by each member state to determine the economic feasibility for distribution. This is part of the Third Energy Package and the European Commission\u2019s 2030 Climate and Energy Framework. The 2030 framework sets EU-wide targets of: at least a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels; at least a 32% share for renewable energy; and at least a 32.5% improvement in energy efficiency. (European Commission, 2020).<\/p>\n
The immediate benefits offered by smart meters in Ireland are the potential for reductions in overall electricity consumption and peak electricity demand. The most substantial costs of the rollout are associated with the labour and infrastructural requirements of physically installing the new meters. The overall cost-benefit assessment for the rollout is broadly neutral, but future benefits could be significantly greater than accounted for in this analysis if anticipated advanced benefits of smart metering such as the development of smart grids and homes, electric vehicle penetration; and local microgeneration are realized into the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":999,"template":"","measure_type":[28,45,30],"measure_sector":[36,33,34,37],"sub_description":[49,58],"main_emission_target":[70,62,61,71],"policy_focus":[75],"climate_relevance":[86,92],"implementation_status":[99],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/policymeasures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/measure\/976"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/policymeasures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/measure"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/policymeasures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/measure"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policymeasures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/policymeasures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"measure_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policymeasures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/measure_type?post=976"},{"taxonomy":"measure_sector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policymeasures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/measure_sector?post=976"},{"taxonomy":"sub_description","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policymeasures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sub_description?post=976"},{"taxonomy":"main_emission_target","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policymeasures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/main_emission_target?post=976"},{"taxonomy":"policy_focus","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policymeasures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/policy_focus?post=976"},{"taxonomy":"climate_relevance","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policymeasures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/climate_relevance?post=976"},{"taxonomy":"implementation_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policymeasures.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/implementation_status?post=976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}