Smart meters considered a dumb move

SCOTT HAMMOND/ The Marlborough Express

NOT YET: Marlborough Grey Power vice-president Dennis Paget is happy to stick with his current meter until "smart meter'' technology improves.

Relevant offers

Marlborough Grey Power wants so-called smart electricity meters to be just that before they are introduced here.

It is backing calls from Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright, who has labelled the devices "dumb" meters and says the technology needs to be improved. Grey Power's national body has called for a moratorium until more research is done.

So far, no smart meters have been installed in Marlborough.

A smart meter is an electronic meter that records how much electricity a consumer uses every half-hour or so. The power company reads the meter and automatically sends back information to the home on how much power is costing at any time.

Over the next four years, power companies plan to install about 800,000 smart meters nationwide. More than 150,000 are already used in main centres.

Marlborough Grey Power president Jean Wilson and vice-president Dennis Paget said they backed the national Grey Power call for more research and more regulations around the use of the devices.

They said smart meters in their current form encouraged a lack of one-on-one communication between power retailers and consumers. They want two-way communication devices and control systems to improve home energy management, and greater demand control for the power company.

Power firms are not rushing to install the meters in Marlborough. TrustPower community relations manager Graeme Purches said the only people benefiting from smart meters were electricity retailers who could control the usage and increase the electricity prices at peak demand.

Trustpower had no plans to install smart meters for at least five years until technology improved.

"Until the technology is right and the price is right, it is not viable from our perspective and we won't be doing it."

Current smart meters had no dials on them for consumers to check their bill against their usage, Mr Purches said.

Meridian Energy external relations manager Claire Shaw said there were no smart meters in Blenheim. The company had installed them in Hawke's Bay and Canterbury and would look to offer them to all customers nationwide in the long term, provided the infrastructure was right.

Greypower's Mr Paget said electricity retailers could adjust the price accordingly and there was no protection for the consumer.

He said there was a lack of awareness and information available about smart meters.

"Once they are in, God only knows they will take a lifetime to get them out or get them altered," Mr Paget said.

Mrs Wilson said electricity users had been "disillusioned".

"The advantages are for the power companies, because they don't have to have send meter readers out," Mrs Wilson said.

- The Marlborough Express