Energy smart meters are supposed to give us the information we need to better understand and control our power usage. The theory is that this will help us find ways to reduce our ever-increasing bills. Smart meters are also critical when it comes to monitoring the performance of solar devices.

But unless you can access real-time smart meter data – information that tells you how much energy you’re using at a given time – fine-tuning your energy consumption from day to day will involve a lot of guesswork.

At the moment, energy customers have access to daily usage data, but they have to request real-time, second-by-second data from their retailers, and they’re under no obligation to provide it. And if they do give it to you, they can charge you for it.

But change is in the wind. As of 30 November 2028, a new breed of smart meters will start being installed across Australia as part of the mandatory rollout, which is being implemented under the authority of the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) and applies across the National Energy Market (Queensland, NSW, the ACT, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania). 

These new meters will have the capacity to wirelessly communicate real-time data, and customers can ask their retailer to provide access to this data for free.

It’s an important step forward in a rapidly evolving energy market, but there’s a major caveat: if your household already has an older-style smart meter installed, you won’t get a new one.

That means approximately 85% of households are expected to be stuck with older smart meters by the projected end of the rollout in 2030 and won’t benefit from this reform at all. If they want to upgrade their meter to one with real-time data capabilities, they’ll have to pay for it.

If they want to upgrade their meter to one with real-time data capabilities, they’ll have to pay for it. (Under the mandatory rollout, energy retailers are initially installing smart meters at no cost to customers.)

So it seems the best move would be to wait until late 2028 to have a smart meter installed, except that’s not really an option. The timing of your smart meter installation is generally controlled by your energy retailer. In Victoria and Tasmania, the rollout is finished or close to it.

‘Customers want information’

Nevertheless, the advocacy group Energy Consumers Australia (ECA), which called for speeding up access to real-time data, welcomes the ruling – especially given that the AEMC’s original implementation date was a lot farther off. ECA argued that it be moved forward in a submission to the AEMC.

“The initial direction would have meant retailers could charge consumers for access to real-time data until 2040,” says ECA general manager of policy and advocacy, Brian Spak.

“Our research has found that consumers want information that could be provided via access to real-time data, which can help them better understand their energy use and identify easy ways to save on their bills,” Spak says.

Providing consumers access to their real-time data will help also build trust in the smart meter rollout, Spak adds.

But for customers who received the older style of smart meter, having to pay to upgrade to a real-time data meter leaves them at the mercy of energy retailers, who will have no incentive to make sure the metering companies they hire offer the best value for money, since the cost will be passed on to customers.

ECA has called on the AEMC to set a regulated price for the many customers who may want to upgrade, rather than having retailers set prices. But this wasn’t included in the final AEMC ruling. Instead, retailers have been instructed to charge ‘reasonable’ prices.

The AEMC is relying on market competition to keep prices reasonable, but it’s the energy retailer, not the customer, that’s comparing smart meter providers, as the ECA pointed out in its submission.

Retailers “have no market incentive to gain the best value from metering service providers as they are not the customer, and simply pass on these costs to them,” ECA wrote.

Pace will be set by industry

AEMC chair Anna Collyer tells ĚÇĐÄVlog that making real-time smart meter data available to households sooner would have placed a heavy financial burden on households, since retailers’ costs are passed along to customers.

“By 2045, most consumers will have free access as their smart meters are replaced through natural replacement cycles. The pace depends on metering coordinator decisions about which meters to install – the sooner industry adopts real-time capable meters, the faster customers gain access,” Collyer says.

The AEMC stressed the point that waiting until the later stages of the rollout to introduce real-time data smart meters will significantly reduce the cost of adding this technology
to energy customers.

Households that don’t get a new real-time data meter from November 2028 can pay to upgrade early or use alternative real-time data tracking devices, Collyer adds.

There is a number of commercially available devices that connect to energy meters or power cables that claim to track real-time usage data. The AEMC points out that these monitoring devices cost as little as $50.

A moratorium on extra charges after installation

Though smart meters are meant to help lower bills, the mandatory rollout has had the opposite effect for many customers. Some energy retailers have used it as an opportunity to add unexpected new charges, in particular demand charges.

These are based on the highest amount of electricity used for one 30-minute block over the monthly billing cycle. This level of usage then determines how much customers pay in the demand period set by the retailer for the entire billing cycle.

ĚÇĐÄVlog has heard from a number of energy customers who were taken by surprise by the jump in their bills following a smart meter installation and the application of demand charges.

The good news is that the era of retailers being able to add new charges officially came to an end as of December last year. Since then, energy retailers have been prohibited by an earlier AEMC ruling from adding charges without the customer’s consent for two years after a smart meter is installed. 

But households who’ve had a smart meter installed before December 2025 won’t have this protection, just as households with meters installed before 30 November 2028 won’t have free access to real-time data. In November 2024 – more than a year before the two-year moratorium on adding new charges took effect – the AEMC reported that around 7.3 million meters had already been installed, covering 57% of households.

Collyer says customers who had smart meters installed before December 2025 have the option of switching to a different offer from their retailer or to a different retailer altogether if they’re facing higher costs, adding that Queensland, South Australia and NSW offer flat rate plans for households with smart meters following an AEMC recommendation.

If households are hit with new charges following the installation of a smart meter after December 2025, Collyer recommends customers first contact their retailer, then, if necessary, the energy ombudsman in their state or territory.

Who regulates the metering companies?

In many jurisdictions there’s an unresolved question about who has oversight over metering companies. We recently heard from an energy customer named Brendan who was convinced his energy smart meter wasn’t working properly and that he was the victim of excessive demand charges.

“My meter reported that I used 4000 watts an hour continuously for two hours, which is absurd and impossible,” Brendan says. “I don’t run air con, I don’t have a pool heater or anything like that – 8000 watts over two hours is just insane.”

Brendan says his power usage is limited to a computer, a TV, a fridge and a modem. “Before this faulty meter was installed two years ago, my bills were around $250 per quarter. Now they’re between $350 and $500.”

When he contacted his energy retailer he was told there was nothing wrong with the meter. Yet energy retailers and metering companies are generally two separate entities that have no obligation to work together, so the retailer likely wouldn’t be in a position to know whether there was a problem.

Smart meters are handled by an array of different businesses in NSW, for instance. Metering coordinators have overall responsibility for providing metering services, and they generally hire other businesses to install and maintain the equipment at people’s homes. Different businesses keep track of the meter data.

The NSW Electricity and Water Ombudsman (EWON) has no jurisdiction over any of these players and they have no obligation to comply with requests for metering data. EWON has lodged several submissions to regulators, including the AEMC, calling for oversight of metering businesses, but that has yet to happen.

Metering companies also operate independently in Queensland. In Victoria, energy distributors are responsible for providing meters.

So while the relative few households that get access to free real-time smart meter data in 2028 will be in a better position to reduce energy costs and monitor solar devices, the national smart meter rollout as a whole – while critical to the evolution of Australia’s retail energy infrastructure – continues to bring with it some unwelcome surprises for many households. 

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On this page:

• What is a smart meter?
• Smart meters in your state or territory
• Benefits of smart meters
• How to get a smart meter
• Saving money with a smart meter
• How a smart meter works with solar

Having a technician come to your home to read your electricity meter is increasingly becoming a thing of the past, thanks to the rollout of smart meters.

Smart (or advanced) meters measure your electricity use generally every 30 minutes across a day, and cut out the need for a meter reader by sending data directly to your provider.

This means your retailer can bill you for your exact use (no more estimates), and can pass that data back to you, equipping you with the knowledge to find the best energy deal.

And smart meters are set to become more common – uptake is already around 30% outside of Victoria (where smart meters are mandatory), and the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has set a target of having 100% smart meter uptake in New South Wales, Queensland, the ACT, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania by 2030.

What is a smart meter?

A smart meter is a digital electricity meter that records a home’s energy use in at least 30-minute intervals and then sends that data to the relevant retailer, usually once a day.

Residents can also access this information, but it’s not displayed on the meter itself, so reading it takes a few extra steps. (See below to find out how to read a smart meter).

Smart meters are the successors to the traditional accumulation meters, which only measure the total amount of electricity a property has consumed and have to be manually read by a technician every three to six months.

Interval meters are a step up from those, and record electricity use digitally every 30 minutes. But they can’t send that data back to a provider, so it still needs to be manually downloaded and read.

Smart meters in your state or territory

If you live in Victoria, your home should already have a smart meter, as they’ve been compulsory for residences in the state since 2006.

If you live in New South Wales, Queensland, the ACT or South Australia, it’s unlikely that you already have a smart meter (only around 20–30% of homes have them in these jurisdictions). Smart meters are slightly more common in Tasmania. 

But in any case, if you don’t have a smart meter, you may be getting one soon.

By order of the Australian Energy Regulator (AER), all new and replacement meters in these states and territories have to be smart devices, so if you’re building a new house or replacing a faulty meter at an existing property, a retailer has to provide you with a smart meter.

Western Australia and the Northern Territory are outside the AER’s jurisdiction, but residents here will still be getting a smart meter as local authorities get their own rollouts underway.

Around 27% of the NT’s meters are already smart, so if you live here, you may have one already. In any case, the territory’s Power and Water Corporation is opting for smart options for all new and replacement meters.

In WA, the main distributor Western Power has a similar program. Around 42% of households on the state’s main southern grid already have a smart meter and the state government plans to have 100% coverage by 2027.

In most jurisdictions, there are loopholes allowing you to avoid getting a smart meter if you don’t want one, but these are limited. See below for more information on what you can do if you don’t want a smart meter.

Benefits of smart meters

There are several benefits to having a smart meter. Smart meters:

• reveal more detailed energy consumption and solar panel export data, which can help you find ways to be more energy efficient
• let your provider connect or disconnect your power remotely, meaning fewer delays when you move or swap electricity retailers

• allow your energy distributor to better monitor the quality of your electricity supply, including outages
• provide data that you can use yourself or give to third parties to find cheaper electricity deals or more flexible pricing plans
• reveal usage statistics that can help you pick out suitable home solar systems
• allow you to sell solar energy to the grid.

How to read a smart meter

While smart meters generate more detailed data, the device itself won’t display all this information to the household.

Instead, users can only access the data once it’s been made available by a third party – their electricity retailer or distributor – or by investing in an in-home display.

The simplest and cheapest way to read your smart meter is through your energy retailer’s app. Powershop, Origin Energy, AGL and Energy Australia all have apps that let you track energy use being measured by your smart meter, while most other retailers will display this information on your online account.

Alternatively, you can buy an in-home display, which connects to your smart meter and shows you at any given time how much electricity you’re using and how much it’s costing you.

In Victoria, you can get a rebate of up to $120 to help cover the cost of one of these displays as part of the state’s Energy Upgrade program.

How to get a smart meter

Because all states and territories have made smart meters the default for new and replacement meters, it’s likely you’ll be offered one if your existing meter breaks or if you’re building a new house, for example.

But if your current (non-smart) meter is working fine and you’re not connecting a new property to the grid, you can get a smart meter by asking your current retailer for one.

The company may be able to install one on your property, but if they can’t, check with other retailers operating in your area. They may offer you a smart device, but you will have to switch your home energy plan to that retailer to take advantage of this.

Your retailer may also approach you, even if your old meter is still performing properly, and offer you a smart meter or a product that comes with one.

Smart meters for renters

Unfortunately, the rules for installing smart meters on leased properties are complex – the AEMC admitted as much to ĚÇĐÄVlog when we asked if they could explain them to us.

A number of electricity retailers do say, however, that they can install one on a property at a renter’s request, without the permission of the landlord.

But it’s still a good idea to check with your landlord first, as there may be faulty wiring or another electrical issue at the property that you’re not aware of.

If you don’t want a smart meter

If you live in New South Wales, Queensland, the ACT, Tasmania or South Australia, you can only refuse a smart meter if your current meter is still working properly and you didn’t waive your right to opt out of getting a smart meter when you signed your electricity contract.

If this is the case and your retailer approaches you about installing a smart meter, thay have to give you two written notices detailing your ability to opt out.

But, if you need a new meter in order to keep receiving electricity or to connect a new property to the grid, you’ll have to get a smart meter.

If you’re concerned about having a device with remote communication capabilities installed at your home, you can ask for that function (the ‘smart’ part of the meter) to be turned off, but be aware there may be ongoing costs associated with this.

If you’re in Western Australia and the NT, you can’t avoid getting a smart meter installed at your property, but you can have the communication function disabled.

In Victoria, smart meters are mandatory and have already been rolled out to almost all homes and small businesses, so opting out is not an option.

Saving money with a smart meter

Having a smart meter means your retailer can offer you a flexible or time-of-use plan, which may save you money, depending on how you consume energy.

These sorts of pricing plans are designed to reflect the costs of managing the electricity network, with electricity prices higher in periods of heavy demand, and lower during times when there’s typically less strain on the grid.

The typical flexible pricing plan operates across three time periods – peak, off-peak and shoulder. (Plans vary in both pricing and times, depending on your energy provider and the state you live in).

An example of the time periods in a flexible plan in NSW:

Peak: 2pm–8pm weekdays (no peak on weekends).

Shoulder: 7am–2pm, 8pm–10pm weekdays; 7am–10pm weekends.

Off-peak: 10pm–7am every day.

Peak prices are higher than a flat rate (where the price is always the same), while the off-peak rate should be lower. The shoulder price should be slightly lower than a flat rate.

Flexible pricing won’t suit everyone and will be most beneficial for households that can hold off using some of their energy until the cheaper off-peak periods (for example, setting the dishwasher to run at 10pm instead of straight after dinner). 

The most suitable appliances to shift to off-peak times are those that guzzle energy and don’t need to be used on demand throughout the day. These include:

• washing machines
• dryers
• dishwashers
• hot water heaters
• pool pumps.

Having a smart meter also means your electricity distributor can monitor the quality of your supply more closely and detect outages more quickly, while your retailer won’t have to estimate your usage and can charge you only for the exact amount you use, meaning you may get better value for money from your utilities.

Words of warning

It’s important to note that your bill may go up right after you switch to a time-of-use scheme if you don’t adjust your consumption patterns straight away.

And watch that your retailer doesn’t put you onto an overly complicated tariff system after your smart meter is installed. Some of these, such as demand tariffs, are considered by experts to be bad for residential customers.

Using a smart meter to find a cheaper electricity deal

The more detailed data that a smart meter provides can help you to see if the deal you’re being offered is the best one.

But this can mean sifting through lots of numbers – something energy economist Professor Bruce Mountain admits is no easy task. 

“It’s not just a case of being able to analyse smart meter data. It’s also knowing the rates of all competing flexible or time-of-use tariffs on offer in the market,” he says. “This is a tremendously complex and data-intensive calculation.”

Fortunately, there are third-party services that can do some of the work for you.

In Victoria, smart meter data can be uploaded to the government’s service, which will combine it with information about your household and current electricity market offers to suggest an optimal electricity plan.

In fact, any Victorian household can get a $250 Power Saving Bonus just by comparing their current energy plan with others on the market.

For other states and territories (excluding the NT and WA), the federal government’s  comparison site will similarly analyse your smart meter data and show what you’d be paying on different plans.

Smart meter cost

In many cases, the cost of a smart meter will be absorbed into your daily supply charges, like the cost of other electricity infrastructure such as poles and wires.

One exception is if there are complications with the installation and extra work is required – most companies will charge an additional fee for this. For example, Powershop charges a levy fee of no more than $100.

Other retailers may charge upfront if the customer has requested the installation (and are not just having a broken meter replaced). Origin Energy, for example, may charge a meter works admin fee of $60.50. 

Home occupiers requesting a smart meter in WA may also be charged upfront, but not if the meter is being replaced for maintenance purposes. There’s no cost to consumers getting a smart meter in the NT’s similarly-regulated electricity market.

ĚÇĐÄVlog tip: Be sure to ask your retailer about any upfront and ongoing associated costs of the new meter and how these will appear on your bill. The retailer is required to disclose these before they install the meter.

How a smart meter works with solar

A smart meter’s ability to show daily energy consumption makes it useful when deciding what size solar array you need for your home. 

Having a smart meter also gives you access to more sophisticated electricity tariff structures, including net metering arrangements that let you consume energy your solar produces as a priority, before selling any excess to the grid.

But a smart meter can’t tell you exactly how much power your solar system is generating – it can only provide a net assessment of how much energy you’re drawing from the grid against how much you’re exporting.

Additional technology is required if households want to monitor the output of their solar array or how efficiently it’s operating, or investigate the difference a battery could make to their energy mix.

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