Jemena

Smart meters

Smart meter technology allows the development of smarter electricity supply infrastructure

Government announces smart meter roll out to continue

On 14 December 2011, the Victorian government announced that all households and small businesses will have a smart meter installed by 2013. It has also confirmed:

  • Smart meters are safe
  • Smart meters are being safely installed by qualified tradespeople

Jemena is bringing the smarts of this technology from the network into the home to help customers manage their electricity usage over time by accessing the Jemena Electricity Outlook web portal. When the meter is coupled with a device such as this web portal, which will be available to our customers in 2012, or an in-home display device, customers will be given access to new information about how they use electricity that will help them change their energy consumption and, potentially, save money over time.

The continuation of the program will also allow retailers to give our customers more choice about the way they purchase electricity. In the future, this technology will provide retailers with the ability to customise plans that better suit our individual consumption habits.

The history of smart meters in Victoria

In early 2006, the Victorian government formally endorsed the deployment of Advanced Metering Infrastructure to all Victorian electricity consumers taking supply of less than 160 MWh per annum.

An amendment to the Electricity Industry Act 2000 was passed by the Victorian Parliament in August 2006, providing the Government with legislative heads of power to make Orders-in-Council establishing a range of requirements for the deployment of AMI, including functionalities and a framework for the regulated recovery of costs associated with installation and ongoing operation.

The AMI program effectively broadens an earlier decision by the Essential Services Commission to roll out manually read interval meters across Victoria, by adding two-way communications capabilities to enable remote reading, remote connection and other functionalities.

The rollout of smart meters commenced on 1 September 2009 and will continue through to 2013.

Advantages of smart meters

Smart meter technology will allow the development of smarter electricity supply infrastructure, which will help customers better manage their energy use and broaden the community’s ability to respond to climate change. A smart meter has many capabilities that the old type electricity meters do not have. Smart meters will have the ability to:

  • record electricity consumption by the half hour
  • be remotely read so a meter reader does not have to visit your home or business
  • provide greater detail around consumption
  • enable remote connection of your electricity, such as when you move into a new home
  • help your local electricity distributor to detect and locate outages and restore supply more quickly

More information

Media releases