Smart meters 101

Posted 23 October, 2024 Andrew Rasch

Smart products make our lives easier. They recognise our voices, tell us when someone’s at the door, and even alert us when we’re low on milk.

These days, you can also have a smart electricity meter installed at home. These clever devices record your energy use in real time and can even help you reduce your power bills. We speak with RAA Senior Manager of Energy Market Development Kerry Bowles to find out how.

How do smart meters work?

Smart meters record your electricity use in five to 30-minute intervals and send the readings directly to your energy retailer. With a smart meter, you no longer need to wait for your quarterly bill to see how much electricity you’ve used. You can track your energy usage as often as you like, through your retailer’s app, online portal, or regular email updates.

Unlike clock-style meters with a spinning disc, smart meters have a digital display, so they’re more accurate. And because energy retailers can read them remotely, estimated readings are rarely needed. You don’t need to leave your gate unlocked or the dog inside while you wait for an onsite meter read. Smart meters make it faster to arrange power connections and disconnections and to change energy retailers. They also help your electricity supplier detect and fix outages quicker.

How can a smart meter help save money on power bills?

Installing a smart meter won’t automatically save you money if your energy use patterns remain the same. Its cost-saving benefit comes from greater flexibility and control. For example, you can cut costs by accessing time-of-use tariffs, where the price of your electricity changes at various times of the day. SA Power Networks has three separate periods that apply but check with your retailer as it may offer something different:

• Peak, 6am–10am and 3pm–1am: when electricity is most expensive; peak rates usually apply in the evenings from Monday to Friday, when demand is highest
• Off-peak, 1am–6am: when electricity is cheaper, and demand is low
• Solar sponge, 10am–3pm: also known as ‘shoulder’ rates, this is usually the cheapest time to use energy, especially if you have solar.

Tracking your energy use with a smart meter means you can tweak your daily habits to help control your costs. For example, you can run energy-hungry appliances like dishwashers, dryers and washing machines between 10am and 3pm when electricity is cheaper, and the sun shining brightest.

A smart meter will also help you monitor your solar energy system. You can follow how much energy your panels are sending back to the grid and when, so you know you have spare solar energy to use.