Meridian spends a fortune on new metering system
Meridian Energy has spent $50 million on installing 126,000 homes and businesses with new metering technology, Arc Innovation announced today.
The new meters were mainly installed around Christchurch but included homes and business around the Hawkes Bay. The installation was completed last June but ongoing maintenance and quality upgrades were needed before the project could be finalised.
Arc Innovations chief executive Simon Clarke the new advanced meters were replacing meters that had been in operation for more than 40 years, and at no cost to the consumer.
“Meters used to be read once every two months by a meter reader on foot and the householder got estimated bills. There were massive inefficiencies in that process but now customers are getting billed accurately and avoiding the hassle of a visit from a meter reader,” he said.
The advanced meters (also called smart meters) use wireless communication to deliver energy consumption data from a house to the electricity provider. The information is collected in half-hourly slots.
Arc has already provided more than one million monthly meter reads from its advanced meters. It is the first large-scale deployment of its kind in Australasia.
Arc Innovations plans to install more smart meters around New Zealand in 2010. Details could not be disclosed due to commercial sensitivity.
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Comments and questions7
Of course the consumers will pay for this one way or the other - and they are NOT smart meters. These ones are mind-numbingly dumb.
We received a smart meter.
It overcharged us and was replaced [but not the overcharging which Meridian of course disputed].
Now we have just been informed our rate will increase because we have a "different type of metering on our prtoperty"
So yes, the consumers are paying already!
It is interesting that since we are about to get cheaper electricity (if you believe our politicians) we now get more expensive meters. Has nobody ever questioned the need for multiple meters versus the cost per unit. For instance the rate for the night storage is cheaper, but only fractionally, the monthly meter rate eats that "saving", pretty quickly. Likewise in our small rural community in central Mainland some, and mostly elderly consumers have three meters, (3 !!!!) so best to manage their power bills. Bollocks! , this means these poor people have to switch off their appliances as they are already paying up to $60 a month just to be connected !! Alpine Energy apparently own a metering company and make more money from that rental intake than selling power !! Thank you power providers !! ?? PG
It is interesting that since we are about to get cheaper electricity (if you believe our politicians) we now get more expensive meters. Has nobody ever questioned the need for multiple meters versus the cost per unit. For instance the rate for the night storage is cheaper, but only fractionally, the monthly meter rate eats that "saving", pretty quickly. Likewise in our small rural community in central Mainland some, and mostly elderly consumers have three meters, (3 !!!!) so best to manage their power bills. Bollocks! , this means these poor people have to switch off their appliances as they are already paying up to $60 a month just to be connected !! Alpine Energy apparently own a metering company and make more money from that rental intake than selling power !! Thank you power providers !! ?? PG
Meridian Energy states that these meters were installed at no cost to the consumer. Who owns Meridian Energy and Arc Innovations, the company that has spent millions of dollars on re-inventing the wheel developing Smart Metering technology that is already available through Metering Manufacturers around the world. Well effectively the New Zealand Governement does and that means that the New Zealand taxpayer has financed all this. It is about time that the lies that this technololgy is installed at no cost to the the consumer, are exposed and that the New Zealand electricity consumers are told who will really benefit from these Smart Meters. The only ones who will benefit are the People who sell you power and you are paying for it whether you like it or not.
I have no issue with smart meters,we no longer have a meter reader come into our home(while we are out)to read our meter.
We dont get estimates anymore and now get a discount in the weekends via powershop.
We looked at getting our meter moved outside at a cost of $1500 so we didnt have to have a meter reader come inside,and now dont have to take on that expense.
You lot are a bunch of whingers.get a life!
So we all pay $50m to save your estimates - good deal. Move in to a modern home if you don't want meter readers inside. You're with Powershop - another Meridian company - you don't work for them do you? Maybe you could tells us whether they can disconnect the power remotely - I believe that was a feature. That's a really good feature for consumers.