Last week European Commission published official document with recommendations on preparations for the roll-out of smart metering systems.

EU Commission website summerized this document with following text:

Commission paves the way for massive roll-out of smart metering systems. When consumers can follow their energy consumption in real time they can better control their energy bills. Smart metering systems will make this possible. Today only 10% of EU households have some sort of smart meter installed. Where economically worthwhile, 80% of all electricity meters in the EU have to be replaced by smart meters by 2020. To facilitate the take-up of this new technology the European Commission has published today a Recommendation to prepare the roll-out of smart-metering systems. It provides step-by-step guidelines for Member States on how to conduct cost-benefit analysis by 3 September 2012. It also sets common minimum functionalities of smart metering systems and addresses data protection and security issues.

By 2020 we will have plenty of data to play with and it's great that EU has already noticed the importance of security regulations around the smart-metering scene. Data collection should be limited to the minimum necessary and smart-meter owners should have complete control over the usage of their consumption data.

Read more: http://ec.europa.eu/energy/gas_electricity/smartgrids/smartgrids_en.htm