Are We Ready For Smart Meters in Victoria?

Reading about the problems with the rollout of Smartmeters in Victoria, one could easily understand why consumers are angry about what they see as being slugged with another unnecessary cost. Consumers are already reeling from increased utility bills and this is yet another blow to families.

There is such a fixation and focus on costs and this begs the question of just why the Victorian government and the Utility companies have done a such a terrible job of educating the consumer and articulating what the whole initiative was all about.

For starters, just what are the real benefits the consumers are getting for being asked to pick up the tab for changing over to the new smart meters.The real tragedy is that very little has been done to educate consumers to the extent that it would seem that the expectation was that it would somehow sell itself.

The big missing piece is applications. What are consumers, not the utility companies, expected to do and get with smart meters. I cannot find anything published or communications to consumers about what they can use it for, which by the way there are. It is time the utility companies understand that unless they change the way they view customers, they are in for a very long and frustrating journey to introduce much of the needed change in attitudes required to introduce new energy infrastructure. Simply saying that one is green or greener is simply not enough.

To take an example from another industry. The real reason why Apple is so hugely successful with the IPhone is not because it is a great phone as there are loads of other better phones around the place. It is because Apple cultivated a huge army of developers to write programs which people could easily get and install and use on their IPhones. Things that they could do something with.

Why has this not happened with smart meters. Where are the "applications" for the smart meter. You'd be forgiven if you came to the conclusion that perhaps they are not that smart if there isn't too much one can do with it. How would the smart meters actually lead to reducing energy consumption. Until the utility companies start working with companies with devices and applications that can actually make a difference to a consumers energy consumption, the smart meters will be perceived as nothing more than a mere replacement for the mechanical meter that they have.

The message is really quite simple - if a consumer does not receive any real tangible benefit, all you are left with is a cost proposition and that will not get you very far

Smart Meters ~ The Untold Story

Doing a search on the Age website for "smart meters" returns a conflicting mix of articles. The article about how smart meters can lead to more effective energy use appears to be directed more at large companies who have the resources and a great deal to gain from managing the use of energy.

At the residential level however, the story is simply quite bleak. To put it simply, it reads "dear customer, we would like to install a smart meter which you will pay for .......". So where is the benefit to the residential consumer.

I am believe in the smart grid, which smart meters are a component off. The problem is that we have not taken the time to do it right. Smart meters are an essential component of the smart grid but unless consumers get a benefit out if it, they will be hard pressed to support it especially if they are forced to foot the bill.

• It is not something which a consumer could opt in for ~ as a consumer this would be a red flag. It suggests "they cannot convince me of the benefits so they impose it"
• What is the use of more information about usage patterns unless it gives the consumer some benefit ~ this one is the real sting in the tail. The primary benefit here is that utility companies would be able to apply different prices for electricity at different times of the day which is a very compelling benefit. This is called Time of Use (TOU) pricing. But the introduction of this pricing has been suspended. Without this pricing the rationale for introducing smart meter quickly falls apart and all a consumer is left with is a charge for a new metering system which does little for them
• The great promise of the smart grid is more efficient use of energy. Imagine a time when all appliances in your home uses energy intelligently. Washing machines and dishwashers switch on when electricity rates are lowest. Your big TVs turn off when it detects no one in the room and the list goes on. The smart grid together with smart meters provides the underlying platform and foundation to do this. The problem is that until our appliances can deal with this it is actually actually pointless. It is called applications ~ it is like having a computer without any programs to run on it. 

The smart grid is just too important for the major players to stuff it up with silly plays and isolated initiatives. Just what considerations were given to the views and needs of residential consumers is unclear. What alternative deployment plans were considered and what applications were investigated? What did any discussions with appliance manufacturers reveal?

A quick read of the websites of the major power utilities talk about making easier to read meters more efficiently leading to cost savings which is a good thing for the utility companies. Let's consider that for a moment. The energy companies get to reduce the cost of meter readings by reducing the number of meter readers and they want the consumers to pay for meters that allow them to do this. Lets do the sums. If the number of meter readers is reduced by just 10, the annual cost savings for the energy company would be in the region of at least $800,000 a year.  One could be forgiven if you came to the conclusion that the reason for compulsory replacement of meters (instead of a voluntary opt in) was due in large part to the fact that a hybrid situation was to allow utility companies to reduce costs of metering. Whatever you may think, consumers are still left with the question of why they are paying so much for something which does not deliver any benefits to them.

The saddest part of this whole episode is that the Victorian people now have a sour taste for smart grids and smart meters and it will take a lot of persuasion to convince them of its merits going forward. Let us hope that Victorians do see beyond the failings of our leaders and insist on accountability from them. Energy and its use is far too important an issue for us to just accept poor performance by the government on. We need smart grids and we need to find a better way of getting widespread support for it.

What Happened With Smart Meters In Victoria?

The Age newspaper carried the story "Plug pulled on smart meter plan" on 23 March 2010 explaining that it would be further investigating the impact on the poor and the aged. I have to wonder about the reason being given for the suspension of the project part way through the project which is supposed to be completed by 2013.

Part of the problem lies with the rather poor job the utilities and the government has done about educating consumers about the Smart Grid. Here are just examples to two of the utility company web pages describing smart meters

• Origin Energy
• AGL

And here is the link to the Department of Primary Industries smart meters webpage

There is lots of information about why it is being done and a whole lot of information about billing and references to time of use billing which is fine but conspicuously absent from all the information is the real benefit to the consumer. All they know in reality is that there is now a new charge for "metering" and no real benefits from an energy consumption cost perspective.

Maybe the problem is that both the utility companies and the government cannot reconcile the initiative to the fact that most Victorians will be seeing massive increases to their energy bills even without the increased cost of carbon trading.

There is no doubt that smart meters are an essential element of rolling out a smart grid. But the consumers have not been educated about the big picture nor have they really been provided with any incentives. All they see is more costs for a commodity - power. I am an advocate for reducing carbon emissions and the use of renewable energy but these kind of bungles gives the industry a bad name. When are we ever going to learn that to change consumer behaviour requires much more than just dropping in smart meters.

There needs to be a more concerted and widespread education program. What can consumers expect to gain apart from real time reading and understanding of their energy consumption patterns. There has been precious little explanation about how they can cut their energy bills. Is it any wonder that the poor and disadvantaged are worst hit

What Are Local Authorities Doing About Renewable Energy

I have searched high and low on my local council website and cannot find anything about energy. Not finding anything I searched a few more local council websites and came out empty. It seems to me to be a bit strange that despite the Victorian Government making commitments to renewable energy targets that there seems to be little that local councils are going.

Would it not be logical for local councils who have plenty of roof space to make investments and show a good example even if it was on a small scale. Increasing the generation of renewable energy needs to holistic approach . At present, the framework appears to be left pretty much to the utility companies and private individuals and businesses.

Local and state governments seem to be conspicuously absent from the scene. Surely all the heating and lighting requirements of government buildings and libraries would be a logical candidate. After all if we are trying to encourage private residential owners to install solar panels why would the same not apply to government  buildings. I can only image that the energy bills are as costly for a government building as it is for a private residence.

And the same goes for schools and other institutions of learning. All these buildings need to be lit and heated whether by gas or otherwise. And most of these buildings are occupied during the day time which would make it more meaningful in terms of energy and cost per head.

Why Is Energy Storage Important

We are told that one of the problems with solar energy is that it needs sunlight. Well that's kinda obvious after all it is called solar and not lunar energy. So what happens at night. Well simply put - nothing, nyet, nadda. No sun, no energy.

Let's face it those lovely solar panels on your rooftop will just generate electricity in amounts dictated by the amount of sunlight available and this generally means from 10am till around 3pm depending on where you are. So this means that you are unlikely to use exactly all the electricity that is generated. If you generate less than you are using, you just continue to draw power from the electricity grid as you would have normally done. If you don't use all of what your panels generate the excess gets fed into the power distribution grid.

Now wouldn't it be a great idea to be able to store that excess energy so that you can make use of it at night when your panels are not generating power. Sounds simple enough? well that is what I thought too and that is what you get told by the marketing folks. And yet, not too many Australian suppliers that I have come across are promoting storage.

But recently, I heard another side of the story. While the whole storing of electricity seems like a great idea for the consumer, an engineer explained to me, in simple terms that it is essential to maintain a level of stability in the electricity distribution grid in order to ensure reliable supply. So while it is comparatively easier for a large Utility company to control how much power to feed into the system, imagine the situation with hundreds of homes feeding tiny amounts of power into the grid. So in layman's terms being able to store and release this excess power from the grid will help stabilise the system and this is where storage comes in.

So while putting my consumer hat on, storage seems like a nice thing for a home system, for the grid, it is not a nice to have but an essential regulating mechanism. It is my understanding that this becomes a real problem when the amount of power being fed into the grid from uncontrolled sources reaches a certain threshold. We have not reached that point yet in Australia or at least we are not aware of where we are at.

Governments and Utility Companies

Australia is blessed (and cursed) will having huge reserves of coal and a review of the latest statistics clearly shows that coal remains our most common form of power generation. In the past year much has been made about the failure of the Emissions Trading Scheme and its apparent demise. This got me thinking about why Australia is so slow in taking up renewable energy. After all all states have some scheme in one form or another. All states except a net metering scheme except NSW. The role of the power generating utilities receives so little coverage in the media that one could be forgiven for thinking that they are not interested which is far from the truth.

Utility companies are for all intents and purposes, a government sanctioned monopoly. Now lets not get emotional about this as there is good reason for this. We all take the quality and reliability of our energy supplies for granted. In simple terms, the government acts on our behalf (business and residential users) to regulate the price of power (gas and electricity) and various governments have acted to introduce some form of competition in the distribution of gas and electricity which is a welcomed move.

However there is a fundamental issue at the heart of renewal energy be it solar power or wind or any of the other various forms. Up until this point and apart from some very rare instances, the utilities have been the only source of power generation. Quite understandably, their projects are big, take a long time and have very high risks. They talk in terms of wind and solar farms and are faced will all sorts of environmental objections. With solar and wind, there is a potential for any organisation or private individual to become an independent power supplier and this is a whole different ball game. It is a big challenge having to come to terms with many small independent producers instead of just a few. Neither the governments nor the utilities seem to have come up with a viable sustainable model apart from some tinkering around the edges.

Ok so if we all went out and installed some form of renewal energy device on our homes, offices and factories, the individual impact would be small but collectively done in a well coordinated fashion the small incremental watts would start adding up to mega watts. There does not however appear to be any coordinated strategy between the governments, utilities and users to make this happen collectively and what we have is haphazard uncoordinated schemes that barely limp along.

There is potential not just for individuals but for smaller companies to enter the market but this will not happen under the existing conditions. It is time we get serious about this

Changing The Energy Generation and Distribution Model At The Community Level

Now that the talk around Emission Trading Schemes has subsided or at least taken off the political agenda for the time being, perhaps it is time to reflect a little about energy costs. It is fast approaching winter down in the southern hemisphere and we have all been notified by the energy utilities to expect costs increases of 20% or there about. No real explanation of the cost increases have been given.

Our energy generating model is has remained basically a centralised system with electricity being generated from large power stations, be it coal fired or nuclear and hydro electric dams. While the government has introduced incentives for home solar generated electricity, the problem seems to me that it is a very insular approach. Electricity generated is stored individually for a home which is fine. But why are we not investigating a community network based approach. For instance when new apartment blocks are being built, why are the roofs not lined with panels with storage in the basement. Or for that matter when a new housing estates are opened up why not make provision for a storage facility to store the collective power generated for that community.

While it may be argued that the technology has yet to catch up with commercial reality, I have not found any organisation looking to change the source of power generation. Every initiative wind or wave power still seems to be based on the same old "produce it in one place" and distribute it to where it is required. Not only does this result in higher infrastructure costs for the distribution. Think about it if we could turn every housing estate into a micro power generation facility, the longer term utilities distribution cost would also end up lower. 

Perhaps with the cost of power and utilities now rising, other more localised means of clean power generation may become more economically viable and better for our environment.