Smart Meters Continuing Fiasco in Victoria

The continuing fiasco with the rollout of electricity smart meters in Victoria is would be comical if it wasn't for the fact that the consumer is footing the bill for something that should have been a good initiative for better energy consumption and more responsible energy consumption.

It is clear that the existing mechanical meters have outlived it's use by date and the benefits of the new smart meters is obvious. For reasons known only to the Victorian State Government, it has chosen to roll out smart meters putting the main bulk of costs on the consumer. The key benefit to the consumer of having being able to see their actual consumption patterns is that it should lead to a change in behavior to adjust consumption patterns to make realize cost benefits of cheaper electricity during off peak hours.

Without these, there is no benefit for adoption and only the cost of installing the new meters, which is mandatory anyway. So what you get is the electricity companies gaining the benefit of more efficient meter reading and therefore lower costs which are not passed onto the consumer.

This is just another example of how badly out of the touch the government is with the people. What is more bewildering to me is why the people of Victoria simply keep voting them back into power. With the coming election I simply say get rid of them and send a clear message to a new government that there has to be a better way.

Location:Mahoneys Rd,Forest Hill,Australia

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