Ms Rebecca Minch:

The Deputy makes a very important point about smart metering. Obviously, the actual physical roll-out of the smart metering infrastructure is a very big undertaking. That is progressing well in terms of being at 1.1 million meters, but it is a very fair point the Deputy makes about it being the use of the meters and that it is not just enough to have them on the wall. She is right. There is clearly a need there for more work to activate the actual use and realise the potential of smart meters.

As the Deputy will be aware, there are a quite a number of parts to this issue. There is a very important role for the Commission for Regulation of Utilities in that in reviewing the tariff structures, because that is quite a sea change for people to start to use their energy differently.

The other dimension to bear in mind here, and I think it keys in very much with a lot of what is happening across the SDGs in terms of the behavioural change piece in this, is that smart metering is part of an even wider agenda around demand management and data.