Interesting to hear Mr Baillieu in the news, announcing that his investigation into cancellation of Smart Meters had failed, that they’re necessary “to regulate” electricity prices. Surely the original concept was to de-regulate, to provide more competition, everybody a winner(disregarding cost blow out $2.3B).

“The reforms include installing subsidised in-house displays so consumers can monitor their power usage and better control their energy bills; and giving consumers the choice of opting in or out of “time-of-use” pricing — where different rates are charged depending on when power is being used.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/smart-meter-shakeup-aims-to-cut-costs-20111214-1ov9j.html#ixzz1gxHZN9mL”

This quote from Energy Minister O’Brien begs the question, what will subsidised displays actually display, will it really be real time, will anybody be there to see it and what will they do(to better control energy bills)??

Biggest worry is perceived need for more big central power stations with bigger poles and wires to distribute more power. In practice, it’s only short term Peak Demand which is growing. Off peak is actually dropping. So don’t we need to find ways to dump non critical loads during short duration Peak Demand times?

It’s possible for Smart Meters to switch things off for you, non-critical loads like aircon  pool pump etc, cycled on/off in 10 minute intervals, to do your bit to reduce peak demand. But it’s not actually happening. We’ll pay $100/year for rental of Smart Meter which will work on a flat rate price per kWhr, just like existing dumb meter, as promised to electricity suppliers by Minister O’Brien, until 2013. Of course, flat rate will go up in leaps and bounds, to pay for more power stations and sub stations and…and…

by Bernie McComb