Aussies in hot water as smart meters slash power bills

Taking charge of generation and use via an often bewildering array of phone apps and high-tech equipment will begin with a new hot water system for some.

Rooftop solar is the answer for others, with Australia hitting a 20-gigawatt milestone from more than 3.4 million systems on homes and businesses.

Rooftop solar will become the largest "power plant" in the nation this year as ageing coal generators begin to be phased out.

However getting the full benefit where it counts - to slash power bills and carbon emissions - depends on smart meters as the brains behind the various energy resources dotted across Australia.

It's smart meters that allow households and businesses to sell electricity to the grid and cash in on abundant sunshine.

They record usage in five to 30-minute intervals and the data is sent automatically to the power company.

Consumers can use apps that absorb and crunch the numbers to see when to get the best use out of their solar panels, appliances and - for some - electric car chargers and batteries.

Understanding the two-way flow of electricity can make the whole system more stable for energy operators too as they tackle security and reliability.

Smart meters also mean an end to meter readers falling victim to grisly dog attacks, as utilities can keep track of usage remotely and not put staff in harm's way.

Energex this week reported another assault on one of its staff in north Queensland after a horrific recent death in the state's southeast.

"Dogs aren't the only threat - our crews are also copping abuse from customers whose properties they won't enter for safety reasons," Energex general manager of customer operations Cloe Kernick says.

Energex says a third of Queenslanders have smart meters already installed, which equates to nearly 700,000 homes and businesses, and the target is 60 per cent of regional Queensland properties by 2025.

Smart meters are already mandatory in Victoria and a target has been set by regulators for 100 per cent across NSW, Queensland, the ACT, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania by 2030.

Already, new and replacement meters are required to be smart, except in the separately regulated Northern Territory and Western Australia but smart meter rollouts are also underway there - for power and water.

Australians will be hearing a lot more about distributed energy resources or DERs as efforts ramp up but it's not as complicated as it sounds and most homes already have some.

Rooftop solar, smart hot water, high-tech heat pumps, smart pool pumps and electric car chargers need an all-seeing meter to join the growing virtual power plant of millions of devices.

Apps such as iSolarCloud show sunshine cascading mesmerically from a home's rooftop solar power system to the household and grid - usually one third to power the house and two-thirds earning revenue from the energy company.

The app also shows how much is being purchased from the grid at night, encouraging the user to switch off appliances and see the immediate difference.

In one typical household, a newly installed 13-kilowatt solar power system has built up a earnings of almost $600 since mid-December.

The latest solar panels also deal with past accusations that it's an unreliable energy source because the sun doesn't always shine. Even on cloudy days, the sun emits ultraviolet rays, which can be captured to cut bills.

Many homes have previously opted for a five to six kW system of around 20 panels and an inverter but 10-13kW is becoming more common and is recommended by most installers to future-proof a home.

Energy technology company SwitchDin has secured a NSW government grant to build the Southern Hemisphere's largest DER-focused lab to prepare for a more complex environment.

Marc Sheldon, the firm's chief operating officer, says the Newcastle facility will run scenarios and faults and help customers understand how different devices will respond.

"In particular, the lab will support our work using SwitchDin's cloud orchestration platform, Stormcloud, to co-ordinate a diverse fleet of solar inverters, batteries, EV chargers and other flexible loads," he says.

Cloud orchestration means managing the data, millions of connections and many automated operations in a new industrial-scale control system.

Similar to other countries, Australia's power companies need to be more flexible in meeting demand and get better at understanding energy use at the household level.

It's a move underway worldwide as governments commit to decarbonising economies and adapt to the onset of electric cars.

In North America, almost three-quarters of all electricity meters are smart, according to the latest data.

Over the next six years, smart meters in the US will hit 93 per cent and 94 per cent in Canada for a total installed base of 173.4 million in 2027, according to the Smart Metering in North America report.

India has announced plans to replace 300 million conventional power and water meters with smart devices by 2025/26.

Closer to home, 20,000 South Australian households are set to benefit from a smart hot water pilot program to slash power bills that could be replicated across the national electricity market.

Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy Jenny McAllister says the project would revolutionise hot water systems, saving on bills for millions of households.

AGL and smart metering supplier PLUS ES have teamed up to learn how managing customers' hot water systems through smart meters can support grid stability and slash bills.

Each home's meter will get the best out of the state's electricity tariffs, which encourage more use during the middle of the day to take advantage of surplus solar generation.

With more than 15 GW of hot water systems across the national market, the potential for application is broad, says AGL chief customer officer Jo Egan.

They also hope to show how dynamically controlling hot water can help manage the grid and allow the market to cope with more renewable generation.

The project is backed by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency as a low-cost way to help transition from fossil fuels and minimise pricey infrastructure upgrades.

Water heating is the second biggest drain on household energy behind heating and cooling, and when a renewable energy source is used the emissions are reduced or eliminated.

Senator McAllister says it will mean water heated during the cheapest time of day and available whenever it's needed.

Australian Associated Press