Using smart meters smarter – understanding real-world deployment
Project Summary
The introduction of smart meters across Australia provides an opportunity to change how we pay for and understand our energy use. However, there is the potential for confusion and additional costs when people are asked to choose between fixed and time varying retail pricing. There is also a need for additional information when making these decisions so consumers are providing prior and informed consent.
This project seeks to address the challenges and opportunities associated with the introduction of smart meters across Australia. We will assess what this change means for different types of households. It seeks to address the potential for confusion when people are asked to choose between fixed and time varying retail pricing.
To better understand the real-world context that smart meters are being deployed into, we will:
- Survey Australian households on whether they are aware of what smart meters do and how they can be useful,
- Conduct survey-based discrete choice experiments where people decide between switching from a fixed tariff to different time-of-use tariffs,
- Survey industry experts on the types of households that would be better/worse off under time-of-use tariffs, including an assessment based on number of occupants and types of technologies (i.e. demand reduction, roof-top solar, and household/community batteries),
- Analyse de-identified household energy data to understand how time profiles of energy use would need to change for different households to break-even with fixed tariff or time-of-use tariffs.
Project Team
- Thomas Longden, Senior Researcher, Urban Transformations Research Centre (UTRC), Western Sydney University (project lead)
- Lee V. White, Sydney Horizon Fellow (Senior Lecturer), School of Social and Political Sciences, The University of Sydney
- Danielle Kent, Sydney Horizon Fellow (Senior Lecturer), Discipline of Finance University of Sydney Business School, The University of Sydney
- Lily O’Neill, Senior Research Fellow, Melbourne Climate Futures, The University of Melbourne
- Greg Morrison, Co-Director, Urban Transformations Research Centre (UTRC), Western Sydney
Acknowledgements
This project was supported by a 2024 Energy Consumers Australia Influence Grant.
Information
| For more information or to express your interest | |
|---|---|
| Contact | Tom Longden |
| T.Longden@westernsydney.edu.au | |
