We appreciate the opportunity to provide a submission to the New South Wales Government on the Consultation Paper Promoting Innovation for NSW Energy Customers.

Our focus for this submission is on Part 1 of the Consultation Paper ‘smart electricity meters’. When asked about the future, Australian consumers are most concerned about the affordability and sustainability of energy. Smart meters have the potential to address both concerns by enabling efficient management of the electricity network as the uptake of renewable energy technologies increases. With increasingly significant generation capacity located “behind the meter”, it is absolutely essential that electricity distribution businesses have access to granular and real time information on changing consumption and exports. It is for this reason that we propose that the NSW Government initiate a contracted, widespread roll-out of smart meters to be completed by a target date, which would also enable support for financing necessary electrical upgrades or other building works.

Our submission outlines our reasoning for this proposal and greater detail on the benefits we see of this approach. Read it here.