Invitation to attend the Sustainable Communities 2010: Building the Big Society Conference and Exhibition,

"The Big Society... offers the potential to completely recast the relationship between people and the state: citizens empowered; individual opportunity extended; communities coming together to make lives better.
"We will end the era of top-down government by giving new powers to local councils, communities, neighbourhoods and individuals"

The New Coalition Government

GovToday presents Sustainable Communities 2010: Building the Big Society Conference and Exhibition, our second Annual Sustainable Communities Conference.  It will be held at Church House Conference Centre, Westminster, London, on 7th October 2010.

 At its most fundamental level, achieving Sustainable Communities is a means of delivering sustainable development for individual places, balancing and integrating the UK's environmental, social and economic goals, placing People at the heart of the agenda.

 'The Coalition: our programme for government' also reaffirms the commitment to create a low carbon economy, again with a greater emphasis on local actions, encouraging initiatives, such as community-owned renewable energy schemes where local people can benefit from the power they produce

Two Plenary Sessions and a series of Master Classes, both with Q & A opportunities, will provide a vital forum for discussion.

For more background on GovToday, and on the conference itself, visit www.govtoday.co.ukor www.buildingthebigsociety.co.uk/

AMO  member Rates: (Restricted numbers apply)

The organisers have kindly offered all interested private sector companies a 25% discount on the attendance fee.  (£999)

How to Book:

Interested parties should contact Suzanne Carrington using the promotional code "AMO- SC" suzanne.carrington@govtoday.co.uk  or Tel: 0161 238 8886

SMi are pleased to announce their inaugural conference on Smart Grids Data Management on the 22nd & 23rd of November in London. From design, deployment, management to integration and analysis of real time data, this two day conference will cover all the relevant issues. The essential networking opportunity will bring together a host of experts involved in tackling these critical issues for the utility industry.

Key speakers include:

· Wayne Johncock, Chief Architect Strategy and Planning, CENTRICA

· Martin Deehan, Operations Director, UNITED UTILITIES

· Paola Petroni, Vice President, Infrastructure and Networks Division, ENEL DISTRIBUZIONE SPA

· Chris Harris, Head of Retail Regulation, RWE NPOWER

· Gunnar Hoffman, Manager of Technology, Corporate Research and Development, RWE AG

· Susana Banares, Head of Demand Response, RED ELECTRICA DE ESPANA

· Jason Brogden, Director & Principal Consultant, ENGAGE CONSULTING

· Ben Nicaudie, Head of Consulting, ELECTRALINK

Fore more information and to book places please click here.

In addition to the published Technical Standards the following gas events are planned:

21st September 2010IGEM UP/11 Edition 2
Gas Installations in educational establishments
IGEM House, Kegworth
 
To book or for more information please visit the IGEM website.
 
14th October and 10th November IGEM SR/25 Edition 2
Hazardous area classifications of Natural Gas installations.
IGEM House, Kegworth
 
To book or for more information please visit IGEM website.
 
24th November 2010IGEM SR/15 Edition 5
Industry of safety-related systems in the gas industry.
IGEM House, Kegworth
 
To book or for more information please visit IGEM website.
 

 On 27 July 2010, the Government with Ofgem published a Prospectus containing proposals for the delivery of electricity and gas smart metering in Great Britain. This covers both domestic households and small and medium non-domestic sites.

The Prospectus document, which represents the joint views of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority (GEMA), sets out proposals for and asks for views on how smart metering will be delivered, including on issues relating to:

• the minimum requirements for meters and displays
• the establishment of central communications and data services
• data privacy and security issues
• the regulatory and commercial framework
• the approach to small and medium sites in the non-domestic sector
• consumer protection
• the approach to rollout and
• the implementation strategy

Consultation Information:

Open Date: 2010-07-27
Close Date: There are two different deadlines for responses to the questions in the Prospectus. The deadline for responses on a number of the consultation questions is 28 October 2010.

However, DECC/OFgem are also seeking responses on a number of key consultation questions on a shorter timescale – by 28 September 2010 – to facilitate earlier decisions where this is possible and appropriate. Appendix 1 of the Prospectus lists the full set of consultation questions and indicates which questions require responses by 28 September 2010 and which questions by 28 October 2010. 

For full Prospectus documentation please refer to the DECC website.

The AMO is pleased to announce that following extensive consultation the above document is now available for adoption by meter asset managers and parties that wish to connect AMR equipment to gas meters.   The template is available from the link.  This is a standard, customisable template that we recommend as the basis for bi-lateral agreements between parties when equipment is to be connected to gas meters. The arrangements align with the Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers (IGEM) technical standard GM7 and also the AMR service providers' code of practice (ASPCoP).

We hope that companies will move quickly to adopt the new agreement as this will improve the regime for granting and maintaining the relationship between connected parties. This becomes increasingly important as the requirements for energy management and access to metering information will continue to grow. This new form agreement with simplified text can also supersede existing Meter Pulse Utilisation contracts.

The AMO has agreed to undertake a review of operation of the new agreements once they are operations and we hope that you will be able to provide feedback in due course.

May I also take this opportunity to thank the many organisations and individuals who have worked to bring this new agreement to fruition.  If you have any questions please contact me (details below) or Tom Chevalier, Consultant to the AMO, via amo@gemserv.com

Regards,

The AMO has submitted a response to DECC as part of thier Smart Metering consultation.  The AMO member views can be summarised as:

• Metering activities should continue to be a competitive activity
• The volume of meter installations should be as smooth as possible to minimise cost and risk
• Meter Operators should be integral to any emerging governance arrangements