The South Australian Government is consulting on options to accelerate the adoption of smart meters in South Australia.

Text: The South Australian Government is consulting on options to accelerate the adoption of smart meters in South Australia. The SA Government’s review into smart metering services follows the Australian Energy Market Commission’s now postponed ‘Review of the regulatory framework for metering services’ which explored a variety of options to increase the pace at which smart meters were installed at a national level (you can read AGL’s previous submission to the AEMC on the review of metering services here). Alongside the benefits that smart meters can deliver to consumers, smart meters can be an important tool to assist with overcoming the challenges of declining minimum operational demand conditions in South Australia. The Government proposes four potential options to increase the pace at which smart meters are installed in the state:

1. Smart meter requirement for controlled load customers (of which there are approximately 190,000 in South Australia).
2. Target based roll out.
3. Age based meter replacement.
4. Demand-response appliance trigger.

AGL strongly supports the SA Government’s proposal to introduce a controlled load meter requirement, where retailers would need to replace 20% of their basic meter controlled load customer base, each year for a period of five years. You can read AGL’s submission, including the insights and observation we provided to the SA Government here.