Smart meters’ smartness queried

A REPORT claiming the ‘‘smart meters’’ being rolled out across New Zealand may not be smart enough has opened a new stoush between power retailers and independent critics.

In a document released late last week, Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Dr Jan Wright criticised retailers for not including a ‘‘home area network’’ (HAN) technology in their rollout, severely limiting the flexibility of the so-called smart meters.

HANs are wireless networks built onto the smart meter that would communicate with smartenabled devices in the home, such as a washing machine, allowing them to be turned on automati- cally when power prices are low in off-peak periods.

Wright noted that in many countries in which smart meters were mandated by a regulator, HAN connectivity was a requirement, whereas in New Zealand where a free-market approach had been adopted, HAN has been almost entirely ignored.

‘‘The opportunity for delivering benefits to the householder and the environment at a small increase in the cost of the meters has been lost; retrofitting additional features [to smart meters] is likely to be much more expensive,’’ Wright said.

Outspoken electricity market critic Molly Melhuish has accused electricity retailers of opposing this technology to safeguard their revenue streams, particularly as and monthly basis,’’ he said, allowing electricity users ‘‘to set ceilings and warnings for when they’re approaching a set consumption level in a month.’’

James Munro, general manager of retail and corporate affairs at Mercury Energy, said the report had overly focused on HAN as a technology platform, when the industry trend was moving to control via the internet.

So instead of your washing machine talking directly to your smart meter, the two would interface through the internet, sidestepping the need for HAN.

‘‘We don’t believe the gateway to the home is the meter – HAN and smart appliances are moving at a different pace to meters and meter standard,’’ he said.

‘‘[By insisting on HAN] we run the risk of choosing Betamax.’’

Retailers also feel it’s unfair to point to the lack of smart pricing options as a failure of smart meters, saying the industry is still in its infancy.

According to industry statistics, just over 800,000 meters had been installed by the end of last year, up from nearly zero in 2008.

‘‘It has taken a few years to achieve scale and there are significant billing and IT costs involved,’’ said Gordon. ‘‘If you’ve got a lot of data coming in from customers you need a good IT system to apply the different tariffs, and investment has been made in those systems and we are at the beginning of a new age.’’

The proof will be in the offerings being rolled out to market in the next few years.