{"id":46789,"date":"2021-01-20T05:31:08","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T19:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=46789"},"modified":"2021-01-20T05:31:08","modified_gmt":"2021-01-19T19:01:08","slug":"agl-penalty-meters-mb1846","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/agl-penalty-meters-mb1846\/","title":{"rendered":"AGL Coughs Up Cash For (Alleged) Faulty Meter Fix Failures"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AGL<\/p>\n

The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) announced yesterday three AGL retailers have paid penalties amounting to $160,000 for allegedly not fixing faulty electricity meters promptly.<\/p>\n

On December 1, 2017, responsibility for electricity meters in the National Energy Market (NEM) switched from Distributed Network Service Providers (DNSPs) to electricity retailers. This change was a part of \u201cPower of Choice<\/a>\u201d reforms put\u00a0 in place by the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC).<\/p>\n

Power of Choice was an absolute mess when originally rolled out, particularly in relation to getting new meters in place for households that had installed solar panels.<\/p>\n

The situation did get better, but there’s still room for improvement on the solar front. For example, South Australia\u2019s Energy & Water Ombudsman recently noted solar meter upgrade delay cases<\/a> were still higher in June 2020 compared to June 2017 before metering competition was introduced.<\/p>\n

Solar aside, it seems there are other meter related bottlenecks – including fixing faulty devices.<\/p>\n

500+ Days From Faulty Meter Notification To Action<\/h2>\n

In this AGL situation involving eight cases, the AER alleges the company failed to promptly appoint dedicated metering coordinators to fix customers\u2019 faulty meters.<\/p>\n

“In some cases it took AGL more than 500 days to take action after being informed the meters were faulty,” states the Regulator.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The National Electricity Rules state that a responsible market participant (e.g. an electricity retailer) receiving a notice of a metering installation malfunction must “promptly” appoint a Metering Coordinator. There doesn’t appear a specific timeframe attached to “promptly”, but in anyone’s book 500 days wouldn’t qualify.<\/p>\n

The following indicates the time from receiving notification of a faulty meter just to the time a metering coordinator was appointed in these cases:<\/p>\n