SERG is part of a team led by UCL to deliver the new GB Smart Meter Research Portal (SMRP) with funding from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
SMRP will provide a secure, consistent and trusted channel for researchers to access high-resolution smart meter energy consumption data, which will facilitate innovative energy research for years to come.
Project Summary
- The Smart Meter Research Portal (SMRP) will provide a secure, consistent and trusted channel for researchers to access high-resolution energy data, which will facilitate innovative energy research for years to come.
- Data will be collected via SMRP on a strictly voluntary basis. SMRP data will only be collected with the explicit consent of households who have agreed to provide their smart meter data to SMRP for research purposes.
- Additionally, SMRP’s strict governance framework will ensure that only accredited researchers will have access to anonymized data using established “5 Safes” protocols.
SMRP Vision
Our vision is to deliver a world leading multi-disciplinary research programme, facilitated by a smart meter data portal. The portal will transform UK energy research through the long-term provision of high quality, high-resolution energy data that will provide a reliable evidence base for intervention, observational and longitudinal studies across the socio-technical spectrum.
The goals of the portal are to provide:
- A consistent, trusted, and sustainable channel for researchers to access large-scale, high-resolution energy data, thereby providing a reliable empirical dataset for research;
- An effective mechanism for collecting energy data alongside other variables from national surveys (e.g. English Housing Survey) or individual research projects;
- A confidential, ongoing repository of smart meter data enhanced with contextual dwelling, household and neighbourhood attributes for use in secondary data analysis;
- An Energy Advice Service for consumers that request use of their smart meter data for this purpose.
The ambition of the research programme is to undertake research that will:
- Support government policy;
- Kick-start the development of new products, services and energy markets;
- Help provide solutions to the energy trilemma (security, affordability and environmental sustainability);
- Facilitate better research by developing best practice guidelines and methods to improve data security and enable innovative uses of smart meter data.
SMRP will also develop best practice for using smart meter data, combining expertise in innovative data science techniques with novel approaches to EUED research.
SERG Role
SERG’s role will be to develop options for the recruitment of participants based on our experience with SAVE and other large-scale energy montoring projects and to carry out research on habitual energy consumption to build on our work in DEMAND.