ENERGYAUSTRALIA is being forced to replace thousands of its so-called "smart" meters, because of component failures.
The failures have meant some of the meters cannot be read electronically and householders have complained of unexpectedly high bills based on "estimates" by the power company.
Smart meters record power use according to the time of day, enabling different prices to be charged for peak, shoulder and off-peak periods.
They are designed to encourage reduced power consumption and to spread consumption more evenly throughout the day.
Adams town Heights resident Laurie See said his bill had risen by about 30 per cent since a smart meter was installed several months ago, despite his best efforts to switch power use away from peak periods.
He and wife Rosemary expected their power bill to drop by about 25 per cent.
But when their bill turned up it was about 30 per cent higher than the same period last year and referred to "estimated usage based on all available information".
"I was very disappointed, so rang up to complain," Mr See said.
"I was told they had just made a guess about our power consumption, because the smart meter had 'failed to give a satisfactory reading'," he said.
An EnergyAustralia representative confirmed a piece of equipment in about 60,000 smart meters had a "shorter than expected" lifespan.
About 1500 faulty meters had been replaced at the expense of the equipment's supplier since the problem was detected in August.
This type of meter was no longer being installed and newer models were expected to be more reliable.
Though the faulty meters could not be read electronically, they could still be checked manually and they still recorded power use accurately.
Customers affected by the equipment failure would not be disadvantaged, she said.
When the faulty meter was replaced, a manual reading would be taken and the account adjusted if necessary.
Mr See said his "smart" meter was changed the day after he complained.
Compoundin g the meter problem, Mr See said he had agreed to pay his bills in advance by monthly direct debits in return for a 4 per cent discount.
Because the bills were based on "guesses" of power use, which invariably favoured the retailer, the monthly withdrawals from his account kept rising until he phoned to point out that his account was hundreds of dollars in advance.
Mr See said his bill had been rectified with EnergyAustralia compensating him for the overpayments.
The EnergyAustralia representative said Mr See had been on an old-style contract until recently, so the "smart" meter failure was not entirely to blame for his high power bill.
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