Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Power and Water's Mike Besselink explains the rollout of new smart power meters across the NT

Transcript

Power and Water's Mike Besselink explains the rollout of new smart power meters across the NT · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Know that Power and Water is upgrading old mechanical electricity
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: meters and replacing them with new smart meters right across
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the Northern territory. Now the smart meters are set to
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: provide more accurate readings and are compatible with solar panels.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line to tell us a
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: little bit more about this is Mike Beslink, who is
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: indeed Power and Water Executive General manager of Core Operations.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Good morning, Mike, Good.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Morning Katie, and thanks for having on the show this loot.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, good to speak with you. Now, Mike, why are
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: all the mechanical meters being replaced.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: As with a lot of mechanical devices, over a period
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: of time, they do wear out and we need to
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: actually then they're becoming accurate and we need to now
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: then go and chain them. But I think the other
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: thing on top of this, of course, is now with
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: these smart meters are going, which are electronic meters, they
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: can be read remotely now, so we don't know the
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: need to have meta readers coming into your property. And
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: as we know, it's getting harder and harder to get
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: access to properties and things like that, so that makes
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: it a lot easier for people to get accurate readings
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: for their power consumpt.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right, So how exactly is the changeover sort of
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: going to happen, Mikell.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: What will happen is you'll get a letter from us
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: between four and seven days prior to people coming to
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: the site, and it will give you some information on
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: there about what will happen. It takes about ten it
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: depends on the sort of media you've got. Somewhere between
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: ten and thirty minutes to change out a meter, we
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: do have to turn the power off to do that.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: So what we do request from our customers is when
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: you do receive one of these letters, if for example,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: you're not going to be home in that period of time,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: or you have lockgates or dogs in your yard, or
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: main switches that may be inside the house, but you
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: give us a call so that we can actually then
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: organize something it's a bit more mutually agreeable for a
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: time to come and do that change up and talk me.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Through you know what exactly the smart meters can do.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: I know that you said that. It means that people
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: aren't actually going to have to, you know, to come
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: on to site and come to your house and read
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: those meters anymore. So talk me through what these new
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: smart meters actually do.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: So what the smart meter does, as you're probably aware
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: of the old mechanical meters, they had a little spinning
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: disk in them and a number of dials, and what
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: would happen is is that every three months or so
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: someone would come along and read the dials as to
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: what the new numbers were, and then that would be
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: subtracted from the last lot of numbers and that's how
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: much energy you used in that period of time. What
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: happens at the smart meters is that they can actually
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: every fifteen minutes or so, they take the amount of
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: data that you've used, and that amount of data is
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: then stored and sent through to the computer system that
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: stores all of that information in there. So no longer
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: do you have to go and read those meters. It
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: actually sends it through and it uses the same technology
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: is what your mobile phone uses to actually send that
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: data through.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Right, And now in terms of if people have
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: got solar is you do you still sort of do
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: things the same way If a home does have solar
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: power as.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Well well, in a lot of cases, when the solar
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: power was put on, they probably will have got a
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: new meter, so they may not be getting replaced if
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: they've already got the smart meter in there. With respect
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: to houses that don't have solar, at the moment when
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: the smart meter is put in, you won't need to
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: change your meter if you do get either your solar
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: panels or a battery or even in the future an
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: electric vehicle or something. So the smart meter has already
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: got the ability to manage those particular items.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: And what's the roll out plant? Are there certain suburbs
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: where you're going to start or how exactly are you
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: going to roll these out?
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Well, at the moment we're working through different suburbs in Darwin,
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: Tenant Creek and Katherine in Alice Springs will be starting
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: in March and during this year well this is up
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: to June twenty four, we're looking to in total roll
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: out about twenty thousand meters and then in the next
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: five year period we'll be looking to roll out another
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: twenty five thousand meters. Katie, we already have about thirty
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: three thousand meters out there smart meters, so that will
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: then allow that after about nine to sorry the twenty
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: twenty nine period that will probably have another sort of
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: fifteen to twenty one thousand meters to finish off and
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: then the whole of Darwin, Katherine and ten and Creek
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: an Aliso smartly, Mike.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Do we have any like how much is the entire
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: project costing?
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: I think in the I can't give the exact figure
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: Katie on that at the moment. I'm sorry, I haven't
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: got those numbers here. But it's not a project that
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: is over and above anything else. This is a replacement
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: requirement anyway, So it's not like we've actually set up
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: a project particularly to roll these out, but it's from
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: a reflection for the customer. They weren't really seen in
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: that for them. But it's like as a cost wise,
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: but it's just part of the normal process of replacing equipment.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: And how do you reckon it'll sort of change, like
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: you know for people who now given the fact that
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: it's going to be a smart meta rather than somebody
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: coming around and reading the meter. I know, in days
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: gone by, people used to even be able to call
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: into Power and Water to say what the meta reading was.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: How bigger difference do you think it's going to make
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: when it comes to what people are paying when they
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: get their power bills. Do you reckon, it's going to
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: have much of a difference.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: It shouldn't be shouldn't have a lot of difference because
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: it doesn't. It doesn't charge you anymore. The only thing
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: that people may may see is if their old meter was,
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: you know, was very inaccurate. These are going to be
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: more accurate again. But it's not going to charge you
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: any more than what the prices that you should actually have.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: So it's so any changes that people may see can
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: be related to various different consumption changes or different habits
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: that might have been around, or as I said, a
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: very old meter that might have been a bit inaccurate
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: and now it's sort of back to being accurate again.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: So that's the only real thing that people will see.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Mike, someone's just called through to ask who's paying
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: for the upgrades? Is it something that just like that
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: falls under the infrastructure spend I suppose for power and water.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's a normal replacement, no different to you know,
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: if another piece of say a transformer needs replacing, or
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: any of those sorts of things at the part of
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: that process.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Well, Mike, it sounds like it's going to be you know,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: it sounds like it'll be an interesting thing. I suppose,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: hopefully a good thing for most people with those smart meters,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: rather than having somebody come out there onto site as well.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: And I know that at different times throughout the nation,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: not so much here in the Northern Territory, although I'm
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: sure that it probably is something that power and water
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: and your subbys do have to worry about.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: But I guess.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it can even be a little bit dangerous when
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: you've got people arriving at someone's home to check those meters,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: if they've got large dogs and things.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's one of the advantages of this, Kadi. It's,
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: you know, if we don't have to go into people's properties,
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: and you know, animals, as you know, can be somewhat
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: I'm sure here, so we try to make sure that
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: we're not trying. We don't enter people's properties if dogs
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: are loose. So that's one of the things that this
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: will stop.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: And Mike just finally, someone's just asked, are the meta
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: reader is going to be out of a job? What
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: happens with them?
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: Well, I think it's like a lot of things, Kadie.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: With technology, it's a change in what people will do.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: So meet the readers will no longer be walking around
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: the streets doing stuff, but we do need people that
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: are going is going to be making sure that the
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: data is in the right spot in what we have
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: in the back end of all of our systems and
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: that sort of stuff. So it does change the role
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: of what people do. So traditional meta reading will disappear,
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: but new different activities will come up.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: Well, Mike Besilink, we really appreciate your time this morning.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Power and Water Executive general manager of core operations, and
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: no doubt people will sort of start to see or
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: start to hear from you guys if they do need
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: those meters changed over. So I appreciate you having a
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: chat with us this morning.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: Not a problem, and thanks for your time. Katie.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Thank you.