The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has made a final rule requiring universal smart meter deployment across the National Electricity Market (NEM) by 2030.
AEMC Chair, Anna Collyer, said the reforms recognise smart meters as essential infrastructure for transitioning to a renewable energy system and achieving net zero emissions targets.
“Smart meters are the digital foundation needed for a modern, connected and efficient energy system.
“This reform will help households and businesses increasingly interact with the grid and energy markets as we support the cost-effective decarbonisation of the energy system,” Ms Collyer said.
The final rules include two core reforms to unlock smart meter benefits sooner:
- Accelerated deployment of smart meters – deploying smart meters to customers faster to achieve cost savings, support a modern, data-enabled energy system, and give customers access to a range of benefits sooner.
- Access to power quality data – improving network access to important power quality information so that they can better manage their networks, reduce network costs for customers, save energy, and minimise network safety risks.
In addition, the final rules include four supporting reforms:
- New customer safeguards – protecting customers from potential cost risks by prohibiting any upfront costs ahead of a smart meter installation and introducing new explicit informed consent and notification requirements ahead of any retail tariff changes.
- Improving the customer experience – ensuring that customers can access the full suite of benefits that smart meters provide, including by introducing new customer-friendly information requirements.
- Reducing barriers to installation – supporting delivery efficiencies and therefore cost savings in the accelerated deployment of smart meters.
- Improved meter testing and inspections – helping minimise costs and improve efficiencies for industry and customers.
AEMC said the new customer safeguards provide for a two-year period following the installation of a smart meter, where a customer cannot be moved to a new tariff without giving explicit informed consent.
After this period, retailers wishing to change a customer’s tariff must provide them with historical bill comparisons showing what their bills would have been under new tariffs, along with practical information on understanding and managing their electricity usage.
The new rules include a provision that enables jurisdictions to require designated retailers to offer flat tariff options to customers with smart meters.
The reforms will be implemented progressively from December 2024 to July 2026, with the accelerated rollout commencing in December 2025.
“We conducted extensive consultation to get these reforms right. After hearing stakeholder concerns about consumer impacts, we strengthened protections around tariff changes while maintaining an ambitious but achievable 2030 target,” Ms Collyer said.
AEMC said cost-benefit analysis (which excluded Victoria and Tasmania as they already have acceleration programs), shows the accelerated rollout will deliver net benefits through economies of scale from coordinated geographical deployment, avoided manual meter reading costs, and faster power restoration after outages.
The reforms are expected to enable more efficient network management and support the integration of rooftop solar, batteries and electric vehicles while helping networks manage increasing system complexity.
This smart meter reform is a critical piece of the AEMC’s broader consumer energy resources reform agenda, which has led the way in preparing Australia’s energy system for the increasing uptake of solar, batteries, electric vehicles and other consumer energy technologies.
The rule change is the culmination of four years of AEMC-led work, beginning with the Commission’s self-initiated Review of the Regulatory Framework for Metering Services in December 2020. This extensive review and subsequent reform process has involved extensive stakeholder consultation and careful consideration of consumer impacts.
“After four years of detailed work and consultation, we have delivered a framework that will accelerate smart meter deployment while ensuring strong consumer protections and choice.
“This is critical for unlocking the benefits of Australia’s world-leading uptake of consumer energy resources,” Ms Collyer said.
Featured image: Yau Ming Low/shutterstock.com
