We were lucky enough to have at our table, two of the keynote speakers – Simon Giles of Accenture and Rachel Fletcher of Ofgem. Instead of sticking narrowly to the topic that had been proposed, we broadened our discussion to a general one about the relationship between the Smart Meter and the Smart Grid.

A number of key themes emerged:-

1. The Smart Grid Vision: What do we, UK PLC, want to achieve from Smart Grid and who defines and drives forward that vision?

2. Barriers and Enablers: How do we get the business case right? Barriers – cost, culture, knowledge/understanding, security; Enablers: Legislation, technology, new products and services, new players e.g. energy servicing companies

3. Skills: Do we have the right skills in the appropriate numbers to achieve the scale of transformation required?

4. Community-based incentives and collaborative working: How do we harness the role of altruism and community-based incentives?

5. Consumer behaviour: How do we drive consumer behaviour change and adaptation?

What was clear was that we raised more questions that answers. However, the debate in many ways reflected the infancy and uncertainty of the Smart Grid/Smart Metering Initiatives, while highlighting the exciting potential opportunities to enable low carbon economies.

The discussion ended with Ofgem’s Rachel Fletcher giving us greater insight into the Low Carbon Transition Fund, an ambitious £500m programme to trial new technologies and commercial arrangements, and to provide information and research on how communities can operate together to reduce emissions and tackle climate change. Simon Giles gave us some insight into the ambitious Masdar project and other, even more exciting large-scale low carbon city pilots coming onstream. What was clear is that there's a role for collaboration -- true collaboration -- across many sectors of the economy. That is -- business, industry, non-profits, the Third Sector, community groups, Local Authorities, Schools etc.

The will to collaborate is clearly there. But the parties need to find each other, map the stakeholder value chain and establish working and commercial arrangements that will benefit all parties. Not an easy feat, but an achievable one I think. As you can imagine, at a Smart Grid roundtable there was much discussion about the role of technology in enabling a low-carbon economy. But there was also widespread acknowledgement that while technology can be an enabler, it alone cannot single-handedly deliver change. In other words, much focus has to be placed on knowledge, education, engaging with the customer, working with them to understand and change their behaviour. Without this, we will fall well short of our sustainability objectives.