{"id":21284,"date":"2018-05-17T16:57:27","date_gmt":"2018-05-17T06:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=21284"},"modified":"2021-02-10T13:40:22","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T03:10:22","slug":"power-of-choice-meters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/power-of-choice-meters\/","title":{"rendered":"Power Of Choice Meter Reforms Result In Powerful Conflicts Of Interest"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"electricity

A new scheme called “The Power Of Choice” has moved responsibility for meters to the retailers.<\/p><\/div>\n

On the first of December 2017 responsibility for electricity meters in the National Energy Market or NEM<\/a> changed hands1<\/a><\/sup>.\u00a0 The NEM is a National Electricity Market that apparently thinks Western Australia and the Northern Territory are other countries because they’re not included.<\/p>\n

The job of installing and maintaining electricity meters was taken from Distributed Network Service Providers or DNSPs<\/a> and given to Electricity Retailers.\u00a0 In other words, it was taken from the people who distribute electricity from long distance transmission lines to homes and businesses and given to the people who bill you for electricity.<\/p>\n

This has resulted in huge delays in electricity meter installations, unethical behavior from electricity retailers, has made a lot of people very upset, and — according to the comments I keep receiving — is generally regarded as a bad move.<\/p>\n

The change is part of the NEM’s “Power of Choice<\/a>” reforms that were put in place by the AEMC<\/a>, which stands for Australian Energy Market Commission.\u00a0 They are the body that makes rules about energy and advises governments, both state and federal.\u00a0 I decided I’d look into these reforms to find out why the change in electricity meter responsibility was made.\u00a0 This was in the hope of understanding why we’re in this mess.<\/p>\n

Power Of Choice Reforms Are Mainly About “Demand Side Participation”<\/h2>\n

The main goal of the Power of Choice reforms is to increase “Demand Side Participation”.\u00a0 This means they want to change the way people pay for grid electricity so they will be discouraged from using it during periods of peak demand and reduce the stress on the grid.\u00a0 This has the advantage of reducing grid operating costs but has the disadvantage of making people’s lives more complex because they have to worry about a whole new set of options when it comes to paying for electricity.\u00a0 In Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia where people have to decide between electricity retailers, it’s already quite complex enough and much more confusing than it needs to be.<\/p>\n

Time-Of-Use And Demand Tariffs<\/h2>\n

There are two types of Demand Side Participation electricity plans in use at the moment.\u00a0 They are:<\/p>\n