Jump to content
  • Sign Up

Victorias mandatory rollout of the "smart" electricity meter


Recommended Posts

Victoria has announced it will start rolling out smart metering technology via energy distributors by the end of this year.

 

Energy and Resources Minister Peter Batchelor today announced Victoria's plan to equip 2.5 million Victorian households and small business with digital "smart" electricity meters, with the first deployments due by the end of the year.

 

Southeast Melbourne, Mornington Peninsula, and the northern and inner western suburbs of Melbourne will be the first to get the new meters, via energy distributors United Energy Distribution and Jemena.

 

"Jemena and UED have finalised agreements with a range of suppliers to source and install the new meters with the first expected to be installed in households later this year," said Batchelor in a statement.

 

"The two distributors will begin notifying the first households and small businesses of arrangements to replace old meters during the next few months."

 

Key benefits the minister hopes to achieve from the new technology include remote meter reading, maintenance requests, and switching. Households and businesses will also get greater visibility of actual energy consumption via 30-minute updates.

 

Greater transparency of consumption habits could allow households and retailers to adjust behaviour to suit off-peak pricing options, said Batchelor. "This could mean cheaper electricity could be offered at set times during the day, so a household could save money by ensuring more of their heavy electricity use is during these times."

 

Distributors have until 2012 to supply customers with the technology.

 

NSW's deadline for the roll-out of smart metering technology is 2017. Country Energy (CE) and IBM announced joint plans to trial the technology amongst 10,000 households in the coming months. At a recent media briefing CE spokesperson Ben Hamilton said the technology was evolving too rapidly for large investments in it today.

 

But whether Victorian households change behaviour following the deployment of smart metering will depend on another factor: price sensitivity to energy. A CE household trial in NSW revealed it was children and not parents who responded to automated alerts, for example, that lights had been left on.

 

The cost of the state-wide roll-out of smart electricity meters in Victoria, including the replacement of existing meters, is estimated at about $400 per household. (A cost that the consumer will absorb) fucking pricks!

 

http://peakenergy.blogspot.com/2009/04/vic...lion-smart.html

Edited by yields
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some of the so called "benifits"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

* reduce ‘meter to bill’ costs due to remote reading capability;

* improve outage detection;

* reduce demand for peak electrical power, with consequential infrastructure savings, better targeting of network investment and improved security of supply;

* provide remote electrical load control, such as shutting down some equipment at peak load times;

* capture usage information at a resolution not previously possible, to inform the design, implementation and evaluation of demand management programs;

* improve detection of unauthorized usage and losses;

* provide improved demand forecasting to assist with medium and long term infrastructure planning;

* facilitate the introduction of innovative pricing mechanisms, for example peak and critical peak tariffs, drought pricing or differential pricing of indoor and outdoor water use;

* make it easier to change tariff structures.

 

For consumers it can:

 

* enable feed-in legislation to be implemented;

* improve billing, such as more detailed information on consumption patterns;

* yield real time comprehensive information on usage and costs, enabling consumers to make more informed choices about how they use energy and water;

* facilitate switching between retailers, as with telecommunication providers;

* provide access to value-added services from providers such as time of use tariffs and efficiency packages; and

* allow the selling of solar or other renewable electricity to the highest bidder.

 

Benchmarks

 

The MCE and the Victorian Government have suggested minimum functionality specification for smart electricity meters. These include

 

* Import and export energy recording in 30 minute intervals

* Remote reading of interval data (routine reads and special reads)

* Local reading by hand held device

* Local reading by customer via a visual display

* Customer disconnect and reconnect

* Time clock synchronisation

* Controlled load management at meter

* Quality of supply and other event recording

* Interface for in-home displays

* Loss of supply and outage detection

* Tamper detection

* Communications and data security

* Customer supply monitoring

* Interface to a Home Area Network

* Supply capacity control

* Remote firmware upgrades

 

 

http://yourdevelopment.org/factsheet/view/id/56

Edited by yields
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It wont reduce greenhouse gas emissions its just another means of control and monitoring. (read below)

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Meters may not be so smart for environment

 

*

* Email

* Printer friendly version

* Normal font

* Large font

 

Josh Gordon and Mathew Murphy

March 13, 2008

Advertisement

 

VICTORIA'S plan to roll out "smart" electricity meters to 2.4 million homes and small businesses across the state could inadvertently trigger an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, a report has found.

 

A major study commissioned by state and federal energy ministers also raises doubts about the claimed economic benefits of the scheme, with the roll-out expected to cost as much as $5.5 billion nationally by the time it is completed in 2016, for very little gain.

The meters will provide consumers with regular updates on how much power they are using, how much it is costing and greenhouse gas emissions generated. They will allow retailers to boost prices during periods of high demand, encouraging people to run energy-hungry appliances such as dishwashers and washing machines off-peak.

 

The scheme will help smooth consumption across the day, making it easy to manage energy demand, but there could be some unwanted side-effects.

 

Energy Minister Peter Bachelor conceded that the meters could theoretically trigger an increase in emissions by encouraging consumers to shift their energy use from peak periods to off-peak periods — when power tends to be generated using greenhouse gas-intensive brown coal, rather than hydro, gas and wind power, typically used to produce peak power. But he said this was unlikely, predicting the new meters' sophisticated in-house display units would also encourage consumers to cut their overall consumption, thereby lowering emissions.

 

The report, by NERA Economic Consulting, found that Victoria's greenhouse gas emissions would be about 95,000 tonnes higher if the meters succeeded only in convincing consumers to change the timing of their energy use, rather than cutting it.

 

But the report estimates that emissions would be about 3.8 million tonnes lower if the meters successfully triggered a large drop in total power use.

 

The amount of energy saved as a result of the smart meters has also raised questions about whether the costs outweigh the benefits. The Brumby Government has refused to say publicly how much it expects the Victorian component to be, but The Age believes it has factored in a price as high as $1.4 billion.

 

The NERA report estimates that Victoria will shave off only 0.03% of its energy consumption once that money is spent. The other states will also experience only marginal reductions in consumption following the roll-out, it forecasts.

 

A spokesman for Mr Batchelor, Dan Ward, defended the cost, saying the consultants had been conservative and had "taken the high-end costs against the low-end benefits".

 

"In Victoria smart meters will deliver net benefits," he said. "In terms of replacing analog meters, this absolutely stacks up for us."

 

http://www.theage.com.au/news/environment/...5126011440.html

Edited by yields
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I posted this up in another thread, but thought I would post it again to give you further insight into the capabilities of the new meters and to also highlight some of the government’s real intentions.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

ETSA to install device that allows it to ration electricity, turn off appliances

 

By Roy Eccleston

 

The Advertiser

 

March 28, 2009 12:00am

 

 

 

* Company wants to install control boxes

* Would allow it to switch off appliances

* And should save customers money

 

AN electricity company plans to install a new electronic control box in homes, allowing it to switch off individual appliances, such as airconditioners and plasma TVs, to ration power use.

ETSA Utilities customers who agree to allow rationing could be in line for better deals on their electricity bills, AdelaideNow reports.

 

ETSA chief executive Lew Owens says the new device, now being trialled, could prevent the kind of load-shedding blackouts across entire suburbs that Adelaide experienced in January, by reducing demand across the city.

 

ETSA wants to introduce the system some time after 2010 and put eventually roll it out into all homes in Adelaide.

 

The new device would go in the meter box and remotely read meters, turn power on and off, report outages – and, if the customer agreed, ration power to an individual home.

Perrie Says

 

Helping the environment as well as your hip pocket!

 

> More topics here

Your Say

 

If it wasn't serious it would be a joke .... filtered internet, filtered power - something rude on the telly - well d...

 

(Read More)

Seeing Red of Peoples Republic of Australia

 

It is controlled by an FM radio signal and on a house-by-house basis.

 

It follows the successful trial by ETSA of a less sophisticated "peak breaker" box attached to airconditioners in Mawson Lakes and Glenelg, which was used to turn off refrigerated airconditioner compressors in periods of peak demand during heatwaves.

 

"We can turn off the compressors and leave the fan circulating the air," Mr Owens said.

 

"We turn it off 15 minutes in every hour by an FM radio signal and the customer doesn't know it's happened."

 

The trials found that peak electricity demand during heatwaves could be reduced dramatically by the control boxes, with Mawson Lakes homes' power consumption cut by about a third, and Glenelg's by about 20 per cent.

 

Mr Owens emphasised that while ETSA planned to put the new boxes in all homes, customers would choose whether to allow it to be used to ration power.

 

However, he added that people who did not take this option might find they would lose all power when power demand was running at peak levels.

 

It is likely ETSA will offer different tariffs to attract people to use the system, potentially cutting the charges it levies for distribution in everyone's bill.

 

One option would be for customers to pay a lower distribution charge in a deal where they might agree to limit their use of power to a certain amount.

 

If they exceeded their limit at any time, they could be given a five-minute warning by ETSA – and then power would be cut to certain appliances listed in their agreement.

 

This could mean a plasma TV and airconditioner might be turned off remotely, while computers would be allowed to stay connected.

ETSA says the box is sophisticated enough to control specific equipment in the home.

 

http://www.news.com.au/business/money/stor...5017313,00.html[/

Edited by yields
Link to comment
Share on other sites

An appropriate topic & well documented amd researched yields.

 

I am wondering if someone could get the 'specks' & 'capability' (name, modle #, manufacturer ect.) so some could get, or rather keep ahead of this controling authortorian 'tech gadet' ?

 

Also, where are the civial libatarians and legal eagles as surely they are opposing the introduction of legislation that must surely be in place before such roll-out can be started ?

 

The shriking of our human rights to privacy in our homes.

That's all I can say.

:)

Nitty.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using the community in any way you agree to our Terms of Use and We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.