An in-home energy meter from Synergy will
allow Perth householders to monitor their
energy use in real-time.
Image: iStockphoto
Domestic electricity users in WA could soon be able to pick the price of the electricity they use thanks to new technology that could take energy efficiency to another level.
Synergy, WA’s biggest energy retailer, is advocating a trial of advanced in-home meters that use wireless technology to tell consumers in real time whether they are using cheap or expensive electricity.
Synergy managing director Jim Mitchell says that Synergy’s electricity supplies are based on three different types of generation capacity - very cheap base load electricity, slightly more expensive intermediate load, and peak load, which is very expensive to generate.
The meters are the first step in a plan to restructure electricity tariffs, so that customers will pay more for the expensive peak-load electricity and less for the cheaper-to-produce base load electricity.
About the size of a pack of cards, the meters are designed to be stuck to the front of a refrigerator, using wireless technology to communicate with Synergy and keep customers updated with which type of power they are using at any given time.
A green light will mean they’re using cheap base load electricity, orange indicating medium tariff and a red light when the most expensive electricity is being used.
Mr Mitchell says the meters give customers the opportunity to alter their usage patterns to take advantage of cheap power and also increase their awareness of their power usage.
“It could mean that they decide not to turn the dishwasher or washing machine on early in the evening while the red light’s glowing, but wait until it’s green later in the evening and turn them on then,” he says.
Differential tariffs are part of a range of initiatives Synergy is looking at to help customers reduce their electricity usage and to mitigate the cost increases in electricity expected when the Federal Government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme commences in December 2010.
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