The government recently published its plans to have all homes in this country equipped with smart metres by 2020. If this target is achieved, then Great Britain will become the first country in the world to have an overhaul of this size for both electricity and gas metres. Over the next 20 years, net benefits of this achievement are expected to reach between ?2.5 billion and ?3.6 billion. There is no doubt that thousands, if not tens of thousands, of electrical engineering jobs will also be created.

Those who currently hold or aspire for jobs in electrical engineering would tell you that smart metres are considerably more advanced than their conventional counterparts. These devices identify energy consumption in great details and, via certain network, are able to send such information back to suppliers for monitoring and billing purposes. This means that all metre readings can be conducted remotely.

More importantly, smart metres are equipped with real-time sensors and capable of providing power outage notification and power quality monitoring. This means that not only commercial and industrial, but also residential, customers are able to receive immediate and sufficient information on their energy usage, without having to rely on notices sent by those with electrical engineering jobs.

In the words of Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change: ?Smart metres will empower all consumers to monitor their own energy use and make reductions in energy consumption and carbon emissions as a result. Smart metres will also mean the end of inaccurate bills and estimated metre readings.??? This will no doubt make all relevant electrical engineering jobs much easier.

The government is still working on designing a system that will bring the best value to everyone involved, e.g. consumers, those with jobs in electrical engineering, and suppliers. According to Miliband, the project will affect 26 million homes and several million businesses. Indeed, the cost of fitting approximately 22 million gas and 26 million electricity metres is estimated at ?7 billion, a figure that has attracted the attention of nationwide professionals and businesses whose incomes derive from jobs in electrical engineering.