The idea of the Smart Grid – using network technology to manage and run our electricity grid better – is an exciting one for me. Qualcomm has been working hard on how we can support Smart Grid implementations. The work we’ve done suggests there are more possibilities here than just utility management – if we get the communication technology underlying the Smart Grid right.

At the heart of the idea is better metering. Most electricity meters today simply count how much electricity you use. But smart meters talk back to the grid, keeping it informed of your usage in real time. That then opens up lots of possibilities for better controlling load on the grid in today’s complex power environment.

There have always been peaks and troughs of electricity demand, like the much-quoted spike in demand when the kettles go on at half time during a big football match. But these peaks and troughs are much more varied now. If many people on the same street buy electric cars, overnight demand on that street will go through the roof as they all try to charge those big batteries at the same time. Meanwhile, houses with micro-generators, like wind turbines and rooftop solar panels, actually supply to the grid at certain times. The information flowing into the grid management from smart meters allows this demand and supply to be balanced intelligently and contextually.

There are cost benefits here, too. The screen displaying your house’s energy consumption and costs is a powerful thing, connecting usage and price very clearly in people’s minds. Trials have shown that homes with Smart Grid technology consume less electricity than they did without. For example, the Challenge North Leigh trial in the UK saw the 800 home village achieve consistent 10% savings over three months.

The Smart Grid is coming to Europe. The European Commission has stated that only 10% of households in the EU have some form of smart metering installed, and are planning to increase that to 80% by 2020.

The question is: how should the Smart Grid be connected together?  The EC’s Joint Research Centre has proposed some guidelines for doing a cost/benefit analysis of any project – and it’s fair for us to focus on getting the maximum civic and commercial value from such a big, Europe-wide project. What technology should be used to connect the meters to the network, to give the most return on that investment? Using existing domestic or commercial internet access doesn’t seem feasible, because not every property has it, and you have reconnection issues with every change of occupant or provider.

I think that 3G is the clear choice here. Many of the core features, benefits and explosive innovations driving massive worldwide adoption in third generation (3G) mobile technologies can now enable the energy sector to provide cost effective communication platforms for advanced metering and smart grid solutions. 3G is based upon existing standards, and enjoys the kind of robust security, reliability, performance and longevity that results from the technological innovations and economies of scale from over 5 billion worldwide cellular connections.

3G is a mature, established technology with managed connectivity that doesn’t require new cabling to the home. And unlike private utility networks that require the buildout of network infrastructure from scratch, cellular networks already provide ubiquitous coverage and support many smart meter deployments throughout the world. Furthermore, 3G is still early enough in its lifecycle that we can expect to see it still operating for the 15 to 20 year life of these initial devices. That’s not something that can be guaranteed about 2G networks at this point – they are approaching the end of their lives, and there’s significant demand to free up their spectrum for 3G/UMTS. Meanwhile, LTE doesn’t yet have allocated spectrum throughout all European countries, and network build out will take time after it is allocated. 3G is ready now.

Once those networked meter boxes are in place, fractional rates for electricity supply become possible, with very fine gradations of cost based on demand. Look at the U.S.: at 6pm people come home, switch on the air-conditioning, and the load on the grid spikes. That’s clearly a consumption peak, and electricity prices should reflect this. A business customer who has signed up for a variable rate package could have lights in unoccupied office suites automatically switched off by the smart grid, both to reduce load and to reduce their level of peak electricity billing. The system can adapt to a balance of needs, and everyone benefits.

That’s only the start of what could be done with this connection. What the smart meter becomes is a geographical-fixed network point centred on a single household. And it has both a connection with capacity and low latency, and a screen in the home. What could flow in and out through that screen?

It could be connected to health monitoring systems, or to home security systems for monitoring and alerts. And those screens on the communication hubs in-home might be a useful platform for e-citizenship, either through information distribution or polling on local ideas.

In fact, these smart “meters” might become the platform on which the smart home is built - imagine being able to switch on and off appliances in your home from an app on your phone, but instead of having to connect all those appliances to your home network, they’re automatically connected through the power lines to your Smart Grid connection using home area network technologies such as HomePlug Green PHY (HPGP).

Europe’s Smart Grid rollout is a big investment but also, I think, a huge opportunity both to manage our power infrastructure better but also to change the way we think about connected devices and management of our homes and workplaces.