What is a smart meter? Who instals it? What does it do? Where is it being installed? A lot of questions, but if it means that the frail aged, or the disabled are going to be charged huge fees, we need to know.

Hi margaret from perth here. As far as I know a smart meter is something to do with your elecricity usage and you can get it installed and somehow it allows you to run high usage electircity appliances at off peak times-that is say at night or early hours of the morning- and therefore attract a lower charge for your power. Now as we only have one electricity supplier in the west it may be different here to the eastern states.So I suggest as a follow up to previous comments that you contact not only your local politician,but also your power provider for any written-I must stress that -information including charges etc and even contact centrelink to see if they have any information too on possible financial assistance.

Here is the article and like all of Victoria these days seemingly it is going to cost heaps more.



New meter roll-out may leave sweltering consumers smarting



* Mathew Murphy

* January 31, 2009



AUSTRALIA'S national roll-out of energy "smart meters" could make it cheaper to check into a hotel than to run an air-conditioner during extreme hot weather like those experienced this week.



Smart-meter trials currently being conducted by retailer Energy Australia put a $2 a kilowatt/hour charge on energy used during days when the network is under pressure.



Under the trial, the charge is applied for a duration of six hours on those days in a move designed to avoid blackouts by getting consumers to switch energy use to off-peak times.



The air-conditioners in most Australian homes average 6.5 watts, meaning the cost of running the unit for those six hottest hours would be about $78 a day.



If your home has ducted air-conditioning, which averages 14.5 watts, then your power bill would hit $174 a day just for running the air-conditioner alone.



Gavin Dufty, St Vincent de Paul's manager of policy and research, said pensioners, stay-at-home parents and low-income households were often unable to shift their power use to off-peak times.



"If you checked into a cheap hotel at least you would get the pool thrown in," he said.



In a paper discussing the Energy Australia trials, conducted on more than 500 NSW homes, Mr Dufty says pricing protections need to be strengthened so consumers aren't hit with bills they can't pay. "There has been a significant oversight by regulators, government and energy policymakers who are keen to promote the introduction of dynamic pricing. However, they have paid little or no attention to involve consumers in a process," he said.



Steve Edwell, chairman of the Australian Energy Regulator, said he expected the states to retain power over price protection following the move to a national energy operator later this year.



Victoria will lead the national roll-out of smart meters with its 2.7 million homes and businesses the first to be equipped with the infrastructure, no later then 2013. However, the program has been plagued by problems, including cost blow-outs, revised start dates and warnings by the Victorian Government's own steering committee that the meters could become obsolete soon after being installed.



Emma Tyner, a spokeswoman for Energy Minister Peter Batchelor, said the Brumby Government had "implemented the strongest consumer protections for gas and electricity in the country".

[url=http://www.theage.com.au/national/new-meter-rollout-may-leave-sweltering-consumers-smarting-20090130-7u1b.html]source[/url]

Have not heard of this proposed national roll out here in Perth. The only thing we have been told is our power costs will be going up soon due to the stupididy of the government of the time that split our power company into four entities and they are now running at a loss. The article as far as I can see did not say if it would be compulsory or not to have one of those meters.Certainly on the costs quoted it would not be feasible for those of us on the widow allowance as what we get is below the poverty line. Not consulting consumers is not unusual they seem to think it is the fairies who use these things,it has taken years (and we are still battling) to get the medical profession to start putting consumers on committees and actually listening to them so the energy companies will take time to wake up too.

Toot - when did they split the power & gas co into 4?



In Tassie they did the same - well 3 from one making 1 the marketing arm 1 the lines and 1 actually making the power to send over the lines to us to pay to one marketing for. Bloody stupid idea but said it had to be done for the competition so probably yours in WA too.



So now we have 3 P/L companies with Boards and all the HQ staff to pay for instead on one and all owned by the taxpayer - who then gets shafted to pay more and more every January 1st for the power whilst paying out enormous salaries to the top end of the Boards who fly in mainly from mainland and get around $400k a year to do so plus drinks food and expenses all paid for.



Somewhere along the line they decided that all government enterprises should be run as corporate businesses with all the usual expenses and not sure if they pay income tax - but the outcome for us consumers seems to be higher and higher charges and not a lot more efficiency. also less and less workers on the ground so waiting longer etc. have to pay those at the top more so those at the bottom get the boot. Usual policy of business in these days of greed:(

this makes solar power look very good! If buildings had these panels on thier rooves then times when the demand was highest would be when power production was at its peak too.



The plus side is that if the panels were in place then there woiuld not be the same need for huge power stations. Surely it would not be any more expensive to provide panels than it is to build power stations.



The other plus is reduction in pollution. minus is there would have to be a change in attitude, and that I think, is the stumbling block