E.ON has launched four pilot smart meter projects in Germany.

Several hundred E.ON customers in Fehmarn, Rugen, Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Bavaria are participating in the scheme, which aims to prepare for the mandatory roll out of intelligent metering systems in autumn.

The smart meters relay the customer’s energy usage back to E.ON every quarter of an hour, while an online portal shows the customer statistics about their consumption.

This allows customers to identify peak consumption times and make savings by changing their behaviour. E.ON aims to see how effective this is and assess whether any technical or operational improvements can be made.

The roll-out will affect customers with an annual consumption of more than 6,000KWh as well as plant operators funded under the Renewable Energies Act with an installed capacity of more than 7KW.

After its completion in 2027, around 20% of all electricity customers in Germany should have smart meters installed at their properties – this will affect more than a million E.ON customers.

Paul-Vincent Abs, Managing Director of E.ON Metering, said: “The experience we are currently gaining as part of these pilot projects and the co-operation with municipality utilities helps us to optimise the technical performance of the devices and thus to better align the technology with the customers’ preferences.

“The launch of intelligent meters is another step towards intelligent grids, which are hugely important for new, customer orientated products and an ever more distributed energy world”.

The UK Government’s smart meter rollout could cost £1 billion more than previously predicted, taking the total cost to £12 billion.