The Electricity Distribution Price Review (EDPR) 2006-10 final decision established a requirement for distributors to provide information (known as the interval meter reassignment requirements) to customers consuming less than 20MWh of electricity per annum before those customers could be reassigned to a time of use (TOU) network tariff, under the ESCV's proposed rollout of manually read interval meters.
In 2006, the Victorian Government decided to roll out Advanced Metering Infrastructure, or 'smart meters', to all Victorian residential and small business customers.
The development of interval meter reassignment requirements are now the responsibility of the AER. The establishment of interval meter reassignment requirements is intended to implement the EDPR 2006-10 decision to ensure that, where a distributor installs an interval meter at a customer's premises, distributors will be entitled to reassign customers who consume less than 20MWh of electricity per annum to a time of use (TOU) network tariff, but only where they have provided the customer with the interval meter reassignment requirements notification as required by the AER.
Final decision - Interval Meter Reassignment Requirements
On 26 May 2009, the AER released its final decision on smart meter reassignment requirements that will apply to Victorian electricity distributors before they can shift customers to time of use tariffs.
The AER's decision implements requirements in the ESC's Electricity Distribution Price Determination 2006-10, that makes provision for tariff reassignment to occur where a smart meter is installed at a customer's premises.
Smart meters, which are being installed under a Victorian Government requirement between 2009 and 2013, will expose customers to new time of use tariffs, delivering real time pricing. This will enable customers to better track their energy use and potentially shift some of their consumption to off-peak times and obtain cheaper tariffs in return.
The AER's final decision takes into account submissions from stakeholders and distributors, following release of the draft decision in March 2009.
