During the year we started a major installation of smart meters to more than 110,000 Meridian customers in Christchurch. This is a very important development for Meridian and for our customers. Smart meters will play an important part in the future of energy. The technology they use has the potential to deliver many new services and benefits to electricity consumers.

What are smart meters?

A smart meter is a small grey box installed in a house or business. It uses wireless technology developed by Arc Innovations, a subsidiary of Meridian. Smart meters make the reading and transmission of information about energy use much faster. This means bills will be based on actual consumption, making it easier for households or businesses to monitor and budget for electricity use.

What are the benefits?

The immediate benefits of smart meters include:

• automated meter reads – which means meter readers no longer have to go to houses to read meters.
• no more estimates – with smart meters consumers are billed for the power they consume.

Smart meters can also receive information, which means that in future customers will be able to use the technology to be more informed about how they are using power, which will allow more efficient use of it.

In the future smart metering could also enable consumers to use remote operation of appliances such as dishwashers or home heating, as well as giving them the ability to see each item’s individual electricity consumption.

How long will they take to roll-out?

The smart meter roll-out to over 110,000 Christchurch customers will take two years to complete. It’s a major logistical exercise. We’re installing them out at the rate of nearly 5,000 a month. That means around 100 electricians working flat out for two years. We are not charging our customers for these installations.