Why do I need a smart meter to participate in the VPP Program?
Smart meters are a requirement for participation in our VPP program as they constantly measure the energy you buy from and send back to the grid. They can also tell us what time those imports and exports occurred. All of this information is vital to our VPP program, as trades work on the market price of electricity which changes every five minutes.
Another reason a smart meter is required is that the Australian Energy Retailer dictates that energy retailers (like Discover Energy) can only bill you for your usage and solar credits from the data provided by your electricity meter. This means that, even though we have access to your inverter information, we cannot rely on that data for billing purposes, including for the calculation of trading credits.
There are many other benefits to having a smart meter, including:
- more flexible billing
- more visibility over when you use electricity which helps you take control of your electricity bill
- no more visits from a meter reader
- notifying your local network distributor of power outages for faster restoration of supply
- allowing retailers to offer a wider range of energy management solutions like our VPP program!
Any changes to your electricity usage and supply at your address (such as installing a solar and battery system) generally require the installation of a smart meter before you will be eligible to receive any solar feed in. If you don't already have a smart meter when you sign up for the VPP program we will install one for you for free.
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