Smart Metering : Building our Industrial Strategy

Secure, reliable and efficient energy
Date Created:24.01.2017

Following on from the EU referendum last year and the resulting vote for Britain to leave the EU, a question mark remained over whether or not our economy would suffer in the short, medium and long terms. A key area that required addressing was research and development whereby Britain had joined forces with the rest of Europe for both private and EU funded programmes. Today, the government have released a Green paper outlining its plan for the industrial future of the country.

Underpinning the strategy is not simply a direction for businesses to get on with things, but it outlines the hands on support that the government will provide. It aims to establish an industrial strategy for the long term but with benefits that can be felt immediately. The strategy is made up of ten pillars namely: science; research and innovation; skills, infrastructure; business growth and investment; procurement; trade and investment; affordable energy; sectoral policies and driving growth across the entire country.

Secure, reliable and efficient energy will always be near the top of an agenda when looking at Industrial strategies, largely caused by an ageing infrastructure and environmental challenges. The UK's energy strategy will have a significant impact on all of the above pillars.

Focusing on Research & Innovation, SMS plc have developed many energy related products, offers and services to a constantly evolving marketplace, and have also been involved in a number of EU projects. Two current projects are Mas2tering and SABINA which both address the future of the energy infrastructure.

Mas2tering is an acronym (of sorts) for 'Multi-Agent Systems and Secured coupling of Telecom and Energy Grids for Next Generation smart grid services'. This rather long winded description is in essence the design and development of an integrated ICT platform for the monitoring and optimal management of local communities of prosumers - to be tested at 3 'Use Case' levels.

News