Smart meters in South Australia

Have your say on options to accelerate the rollout of smart meters in South Australia

What's being decided?

We are seeking stakeholder feedback on accelerating the rollout of smart meters to small customers in South Australia.

We are doing this to ensure the benefits smart meters can provide to consumers are realised and to gain greater load shifting capacity, which can help better manage minimum electricity demand conditions.

We have proposed 4 options to hasten the rollout of smart meters, which are included within our consultation paper.

Specifically, we'd like to know:

• potential benefits and impact on smart meter numbers for each option
• your preferred option
• implementation considerations and timeframes
• potential impacts on customers

Your comments, experience and insights are valuable to help ensure that the benefits of smart meters for South Australians can be realised.

Background

Smart meters can deliver important benefits to consumers, such as more regular, accurate and detailed information that can help them better manage their energy use.

To date, the smart meter roll out has been slower than expected due to the lack of incentives for retailers and consumers. This has meant that retailers have not offered a broader range of innovative tariffs and plans that reward customers for managing their demand.

The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) is reviewing the national regulatory framework for metering services. The AEMC has outlined possible options to improve the efficiency and speed of the roll out of smart meters in the National Electricity Market. However, the AEMC has paused its review until April 2022 to enable resources to be temporarily allocated to other critical projects.

While the AEMC may recommend changes to increase smart meter installation rates, any national reform could take some time to implement, delaying the benefits for South Australia’s consumers and the power system.

We are therefore considering options that can boost smart meter numbers in South Australia sooner.

Get involved

Find out more:

• read our consultation paper

Have your say by:

• joining the online discussion below
• joining us for an online workshop on Monday 7 February 2022 from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm (ACST) (register your interest at ETRConsultations@sa.gov.au)
• emailing a submission with the subject line 'SA smart meters - consultation' to ETRConsultations@sa.gov.au
• posting your written submission to:
  
  Attention: Rebecca Knights
  Department for Energy and Mining
  Energy and Technical Regulation Division
  GPO Box 320, Adelaide, South Australia 5001

What are the next steps?

We will consider stakeholder feedback to determine appropriate reform options.

If you would like to provide comments in addition to a submission, or to discuss this consultation further, please email ETRConsultations@sa.gov.au