Electricity Smart Meters - what does this rollout mean for growers?

Electricity smart meters continue to be rolled out in Queensland.

Many of these have been installed without incident and can provide a range of benefits over the older analogue meters, including greater accuracy and access to time-of-use tariffs.

A smart meter measures when and how much electricity is used at your premises. It sends this information back to your energy retailer remotely, without your meter needing to be manually read by a meter reader.

“However, some of our growers have highlighted an issue related to the new meters. These meters have a limit of 80 amps, which is ample for many growers’ requirements. The previous meters had a 100-amp limit, and it seems that there are some cases where the farm irrigation infrastructure draws current that is closer to the 100-amp limit. Particularly where large pumps start-up and cause a surge in the current being drawn,” CANEGROWERS Farm Business Resilience Project Manager Chris Gillitt said.

“Another example of a limitation is where the gauge of the incoming cables is too large for the new meter.”

In these cases (and probably a few more permutations of the issue), an alternative is provided where the electrical board is upgraded to enable Current Transformer (CT) meters to be installed.

This is usually required for connections with a load greater than 100 amps. They measure a fraction of the amps passing through the connection and a multiplier is applied to this reading to reflect the actual amps. This approach is usually significantly more costly than the smart meter upgrade.

On further investigation, it seems there may be other models of smart meters which are capable of handling up to 100 amp current.

Joseph Borg , pictured below, is CANEGROWERS Mackay Deputy Chairman, and a grower in the Mackay milling district and has observed these very issues in his district with the new meters.

CANEGROWERS has been talking with Ergon about the new meters to find a solution

“CANEGROWERS has been talking with Ergon about the new meters to find a solution,” Joseph said.

“There is a smart meter option with a higher amp limit that will allow our pumps to work without the circuit to break. The problem is that it’s more expensive and at this moment it requires the growers to pay that cost, while the other 80-amp limit meters are being installed free of charge.

“We are hoping that our discussions will find a resolution to this issue.”

CANEGROWERS has requested a review of whether these meters can be provided in situations where a higher current is being drawn. Energy Queensland has discussed the issue with the major metering providers and there are technical aspects which they are investigating, including whether the alternative meters meet the required technical specifications and whether sufficient quantities will be available now and into the future.

"It would be pointless to rewrite the book on this if they can’t be supplied with enough meters.

“We are seeking feedback from growers who have experienced this problem on their farm, or if they believe that this will be an issue for them in the future when their meter is due for replacement,” Chris said.

“Please contact your local CANEGROWERS office if this is the case for you, as growers examples will be important to demonstrate that this is a significant issue that warrants the work to enable another metering solution.”