Australia’s national electricity market smart meter rollout rule finalised
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An accelerated smart meter rollout to be finalised by 2030 in Australia’s national electricity market has been approved in a final rule from the Energy Market Commission.
The final rule, the result of a four year-long process, is envisaged to enable the benefits of smart meters to be achieved more rapidly, including cost savings for customers and support for a data enabled energy system.
In addition to the accelerated rollout the ruling improves access to power quality data to enable operators to better manage their networks, reduce network costs for customers, save energy, and minimise network safety risks
“Smart meters are the digital foundation needed for a modern, connected and efficient energy system,” said AEMC Chair Anna Collyer.
“This reform will help households and businesses increasingly interact with the grid and energy markets as we support the cost-effective decarbonisation of the energy system.”
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The final rule also includes additional reforms to support customers and improve the costs and efficiencies of the rollout.
New customer safeguards are intended to protect customers from potential cost risks by prohibiting any upfront costs ahead of a smart meter installation and introducing new explicit informed consent and notification requirements ahead of any retail tariff changes.
These include providing for a two-year period following the installation of a smart meter, where a customer cannot be moved to a new tariff without giving explicit informed consent.
After this period, retailers wishing to change a customer’s tariff must provide them with historical bill comparisons showing what their bills would have been under new tariffs, along with practical information on understanding and managing their electricity usage.
The customer experience should be further improved by ensuring that they can access the full suite of benefits that smart meters provide, including by introducing new customer-friendly information requirements.
Other reforms are reducing the barriers to installation and improving meter testing and inspections.
The reforms are planned to be implemented progressively from December 2024 to July 2026, with the accelerated rollout commencing in December 2025.
A cost-benefit analysis of the national electricity market smart meter rollout – excluding Victoria and Tasmania, which already have accelerated programmes – found it would deliver net benefits through economies of scale from coordinated geographical deployment, avoided manual meter reading costs and faster power restoration after outages.
Currently 7.3 million remotely read meters are in place corresponding to a penetration in the NEM of 57% with individual states ranging from 39% in New South Wales and 40% in ACT to 99% in Victoria.
