Smart Meter Technology To Benefit Consumers In Australia
An independent economic review of Victoria’s smart meter roll out has found that the benefits far outweigh the costs of vital infrastructure upgrade.
Releasing the Benefits and Costs of the Victorian AMI Program independent report completed by Oakley Greenwood, Minister for Energy and Resources Peter Batchelor said smart meter technology would benefit consumers and transform a critical piece of energy infrastructure from the mechanical into the digital age.
“This independent report clearly shows smart meters will deliver benefits for Victorian families and our Government made the right decision to roll-out smart meters,” he said.
“Through the roll-out of smart meters we are equipping Victorian families with the tools to manage their energy bills and connect more easily to new technology such as solar panels.”
Mr Batchelor said the report found that the smart meter program is ‘cost effective no matter which mix of costs and benefits are used’.
“Importantly, the report also says that ‘the vast majority of the benefits that are forecast to result from smart meters will ultimately flow to customers’,” Mr Batchelor said.
“Because smart meters have two-way communication capabilities, Victorians won’t have to pay for manual meter readers, we won’t always need a truck to visit for disconnections or reconnections and there’ll be fewer estimated bills.
“In addition, your distribution business will automatically know if your power goes out and in many cases will be able to reconnect you more quickly.”
Mr Batchelor said the positive findings of the report come as some of these benefits begin to be passed on to households.
“Recent applications to the Australian Energy Regulator by distributors to change charges will see the cost of connection and special meter reads slashed,” he said.
“For example, under these proposed changes, if you live in Mount Waverley and you need to have a special meter read it currently costs $32.90, but once you get a smart meter that will cost no more than $2.
“If you move into a house in Sunbury it currently costs $23 to get the power connected. With a smart meter that cost will fall to around $5, which might be even less by the time the regulator makes its final decision.”
The report shows the cost over 20 years of installing smart meters is $1.621 billion dollars while the cost of continuing with current metering services would have been $1.459 billion.
“That means the cost of installing smart meters, above what it would have cost to maintain the existing system, is $162 million,” Mr Batchelor said.
“For that investment the report says that in the lowest case scenario, over time consumers can expect additional benefits of $415 million.
“A key finding of the report is that consumers will receive the low case benefits from the infrastructure upgrade without any behavioural change on their part. This is a result of moving from manual to automated service delivery.
“However, it also finds that if people use the information provided by their smart meter to reduce energy consumption or take advantage of new products and services expected to be offered by retailers, then the benefits increase even further.”
“The report shows that if there is a reasonable uptake of optional activities by customers the benefits could be as high as $5 billion. Optional activities could include the take up of new pricing offers, customer information tools or appliance control devices.”
Mr Batchelor said in addition to the benefits for Victorian households the Victorian roll-out of smart meters had helped create more than 700 jobs.
Smart meters are being rolled-out to all homes and small businesses in Victoria and more than 250,000 have already been installed.
The cost of the roll-out is being met by a set metering charge for each electricity customer – this year that charge is on average $17 per quarterly bill or $68 per year.
At a Council of Australian Governments’ meeting on 10 February 2006, chaired by then Prime Minister, John Howard, all States agreed to a national rollout of electricity smart meters where benefits were found to outweigh costs.
A copy of the report Benefits and Costs of the Victorian AMI Program is available at www.dpi.vic.gov.au/smartmeters
Topics: 2010, Australia, Australian Energy Regulator, business, clean energy, digital age, distributors, economic development, economic growth, Economy, electrical grid, energy, energy consumption, environment, Governance, government, infrastructure, investment, metering services, moniter, monitor, news, Peter Batchelor, renewable energy, smart grid meters, smart meters, society, Victoria, Victorian AMI Program
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