Smart meters or just dumb?

It is not known when South Canterbury households will get "smart" electricity meters installed.

Contact Energy spokesman Jonathan Hill said smart meters had just been rolled out in Christchurch as part of a pilot programme. The company intended to provide a smart meter to all its 500,000 customers around New Zealand, but could not say when it would come to South Canterbury.

Contact Energy has 20,672 customers in South Canterbury, making up 67.7 per cent of the 30,527 customers on Alpine Energy's list.

Genesis Energy has 1240 customers, Mercury Energy has 142, Meridian Energy 2486, and TrustPower 5956. Thirty-one customers were yet to be confirmed as they were either switching between retailers, had vacated premises, or were moving in, Alpine Energy said.

Grey Power national president Les Howard, of Timaru, said the meters were "really dumb".

"It's a meter that's more sympathetic to the retailer than it is to the customer."

He said Grey Power members wanted a fully programmed meter that did not need to be paid for if householders wanted to alter it.

"We want them programmed properly, so it's in our benefit to have them."

Parliament's Environment Commissioner Jan Wright said on Thursday it was important to dissuade big power companies from plans to distribute smart meters without microchips or open access communications protocols which could cope with technology from a wide range of appliance manufacturers – in many cases, those meters would only help the companies gather marketing and billing data, rather than aid householders.

She said "really smart" electricity meters could save householders up to 15 per cent – before they even buy any appliances with technology to communicate with the meters.

Mr Hill said he did not know whether Contact Energy's smart meters were the same as the "really smart" meters.

Dr Wright told the commerce select committee that having a real-time display, perhaps in the kitchen – showing how much electricity was being consumed and how much it cost – could change the way householders used energy, and influence them to switch some of their load to off-peak periods.

"I am disappointed to learn that householders are being told by electricity companies they can't have a really smart electricity meter installed – even if they ask for it, or offer to pay for it themselves," said Dr Wright.

The metering could make a 5 per cent saving in household consumption, worth $125m, and up to 10 per cent reduction in peak demand, saving another $100m, he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News