The smart meter + in-home display could (with a vast other infrastructure) allow things like

- (benefit) centralised pushing to you the consumer of the CURRENT price of power – in theory this allows you to make a better decision abut whether you really want to run your a/c or not. (downsides) though on a 45 degree day in Adelaide its not really that much of a choice, and further you still actually have to be there to see it and act on the information;

- (benefit) load shedding by selective turn-off of high demand devices during peak, also called demand management. This is where the (some? which?) electricity provider will do something like turn off your fridge, or freezer, or a/c compressor for maybe 15 to 30 minutes to reduce demand. In return you get a lower price of power. (downside) Most people don’t like the idea of “big brother” having sensors in their house and controlling their devices. Though such equipment does already exist and there are some quite big trials in Adelaide right now. But OFF means OFF, and overriding the demand management systems isn’t easily possible… so there are all sorts of implication come with this

These are the big ones – the smart meter is the initial gateway into the home for the ultimate in control and monitoring technology, there’s a lot more to come. (I’m in the industry, I *know* where this is all heading).

Actually, there are some things that are far more valuable in terms of energy management but they require far more courage to do anything about.

For example – band-bulb is very silly indeed, the savings from compact fluors are illusory and CF lamps are quite inappropriate for many uses. But the LED lamps coming (stuill far too expensive but in 5 years…) THESE WILL BE REVOLUTIONARY. About 20% of the current power consumption, 50x the lifetime, and suitable to rapid switching cycles, refrigerators, and so on.

But educating idiots to turn back their thermostats will pay huge dividends. You DONT need to heat to 23 degrees in winter when 19 degrees will do fine (and put a sweater on). Likewise you don’t need to cool to 21 in summer – 25 will do. How you force this is a big problem.

And how you get people to close their windows when they use refrigerative air-conditioners (spare me… a walk around the burbs in summer makes me so cranky at the fools who think evaporative and use refrigerative…. one type needs windows open, the other its the enemy. Teach the great unwashed the difference!

Next – the huge consumers of power are (believe it or not) plasma TV’s and swimming pool pumps. Reducing those will make a difference of greater magnitude than banning the bulb. (Federal government figures bear this out). In a really energy conscious world, plasma TV’s would simply be banned. And in a town like Adelaide where water is scarce, swimming pools would likewise have an incentive for being filled in – use less water and power at the same time.

/end of rant

As expressed earlier, I’m as cynical as Deborah about where Smart Meters were/are designed to lead us.

Alternatively, I think they’re an incredible enabler, with a potential to do some real and necessary good. I’m interested in reading ideas of their *positive* possibilities, whether or not they’ll ever be realised.

The in-home display requires that you are:

1. present to look at it

2. interested in looking at it

3. capable of understanding what you are looking at

4. willing and able to DO SOMETHING about what you are looking at

This is fine for the committed few. For most ordinary people in the ‘burbs, the novelty value will wear off after about the first week – and it will be ignored if not relegated to a dusty cupboard somewhere.

The in-home displays are about feel-good. Somebody will make a vast amount of money out of selling all this stuff but in the end it will make little difference. It’s all still about money and risk.

As part of making a privately owned market with separate generators, distribution, retail, and so on, the issue of RISK becomes bigger than ever before.

In this case, though, the risk is – who bears the cost of volatility?

Volatility refers to the cost of power. When there is surplus generating capacity, the price will be low. When there is a shortage the price will be high. And we always have shortages during heatwaves.

As it currently stands, the consumers pay the retailer a FIXED amount for power, and the system is set up to allow the generators to change prices (rebidding) every 1/2 hour. In the end this means you power retailer (AGL, TRU, Energex, whatever) wears the volatiliy risk.

Basically the retailer is selling at a fixed price and buying at a variable price.

Smart Meters allow the retailer to push the risk back to the consumer – who will pay the variable price. It’s all been dressed up with mumbo jumbo and environmentalism: “we will tell the user the cost of power and it is their choice if they wish to pay it”. Yeah right. What utter bollocks.

It’s all about moving the business risk from the retailers to the consumers.

It’s all about money.

And if water prices treble as they’re expected to, presumably even more people will die of thirst rather than drink water they can’t afford?

6 star or better houses with good passive solar design don’t need airconditioners – ours got to 30 degrees in the living area on the record 46.4C day. New blinds and shade sails helped a lot; previously it would have got to 34C or higher inside.

We run a ceiling fan but no aircon. And our panels are producing power when it is needed most.

You can buy a wall aircon unit that consumes 8kW, our solar array produces 1.5kW. The more people that buy aircon units, the higher the peak load on hot days, which then exceeds the grid supply. So then they schedule rolling outages across suburbs to “load shed” and the punters suddenly find that their new aircon stops and they start to cook.

Which is why the Vic Govt wants to (and has approved) building new coal fired and gas powered power stations – which more carbon emissions and more climate change. Anyone spot the Catch 22?

And Wilful, evaporative coolers use quite a lot of water, and are dam levels for Melbourne’s water supply are much lower than this time last year with no rain in sight.