Currently, it will cost you at least $149 to remove a basic meter and install a smart meter via iO Energy and Energy Locals. There may also be additional charges if your property's electrical infrastructure requires is not up to standard and/or requires extra work.
There are three costs in installing a smart meter:
- The cost of the meter itself
- The cost of organising the meter installation
- The cost of on-site electrical works
Cost of the meter
Our electricity customers do not have to pay for their smart meter, despite being advanced pieces of technology that are approximately $1,500 in value.
This is because the meter companies that install them do not sell them and are happy to install them at no upfront cost. Instead, iO Energy pays the metering company for the services that they provide and bundles that cost up to customers in its daily supply charge.
Cost of administration
Our partner Energy Locals charges us $149 to organise and administer the installation of a smart meter, and we pass this onto our customers.
This charge reflects that while most smart meter installations proceed smoothly, company resources have to be allocated to organising meter installations because some meter installations can be particularly difficult to organise.
There are many stakeholders involved in meter installations, and they must all be communicated with to coordinate a successful installation. In particular, it can be difficult to schedule time with some customers and when unforeseen electrical problems arise on site, much more administrative work can be generated.
NB: Many large electrical retailers do not charge an administration fee because they can absorb the cost of the work. If you intend to switch to iO Energy from such a company, consider requesting that they install your smart meter prior to switching.
Cost of on-site electrical works
Additional site-specific costs can arise if your property's electrical infrastructure is not up to standard and/or requires extra work.
In particular, additional costs will arise where electrical infrastructure is:
- unsafe to work on, and/or
- unable to be worked on without interrupting neighbours' electrical supply.
Some homes are unsafe to work on because of a lack of modern safety mechanisms. Other homes are unable to be worked on without interrupting neighbours' electrical supply because of shared electrical infrastructure. Unfortunately, these problems are often only discovered when a technician arrives to install your smart meter.
Typically, you can overcome these problems in one of two ways: a temporary isolation or a permanent upgrade. That is, you can ask your local network company to send technicians to enable the installation by temporarily isolating your property from the electrical grid and/or neighbouring properties, or you can employ a private electrician to permanently upgrade the infrastructure so that is can be worked on at any time.
When you have this problem, our partner Energy Locals will ask your local network company to quote the temporary fix. This may be in the hundreds of dollars. Alternatively, you can ask a private electrician to quote a permanent fix. This may be in the hundreds to thousands of dollars depending on your site's specific circumstances.
If you opt not to proceed with these works, iO Energy will simply leave you with your basic meter and charge you a flat rate for your energy use.