Electricity meter exchanges
For customers in New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia
Smart meters in Victoria are owned and maintained by the local distribution network. Any faults identified will be managed by them.
At Dodo we do complete a meter exchange or upgrade, though we don’t undertake new meter installations at new sites.
When you have a meter exchanged there are physical changes at your property which may cause an interruption to your electricity supply. Generally, a simple exchange is completed within an hour.
All replacement meters will be interval “smart” meters that record your usage every 30 minutes. Generally, this 30-minute consumption is provided to Dodo daily.
Benefits of having a smart meter
- Accurate bills (due to the reduced probability of getting an estimated bill)
- Provides you with greater visibility of your electricity consumption. Understanding whether you use electricity at a more expensive time of day will assist in shifting your discretionary usage to a less expensive time, helping reduce the size of your bill.
- Gives you access to a wider range of services, including solar and battery storage.
- Provides more choice of tariffs including flexible pricing. Flexible pricing means different rates for electricity at different times of the day so you can use appliances such as dishwashers, clothes dryers and pool pumps at off peak times (cheaper times).
- Faster move ins or move outs
Reasons your meter might need to be exchanged
There are triggers that require your meter to be exchanged, such as your meter reaching its end of life, a faulty meter, or the installation of a solar system.
1. Meter fault
Your meter provider will contact us if your meter is faulty and needs to be replaced.
We’ll contact our preferred metering coordinator and ask them to replace your meter at no cost to you. However, if your meter needs to be upgraded, (an example being the installation of a solar system), you may incur a cost. Dodo, or our metering coordinator, will contact you to arrange an appointment. Unless we agree otherwise, the meter will be installed within 15 business days from when you agreed to the meter exchange.
Complex meter exchanges (such as in some apartment blocks where the mains supply is shared) cannot be completed without interrupting supply to these other sites as well. This will be discussed with you when scheduling an appointment. Unless we agree otherwise, the meter will be replaced within 30 business days of identifying the shared fuse. In these instances, there may be additional costs which may vary depending on your Distributor.
There may be instances when current safety requirements are not met (such as at older sites) or more work is required before the connection can be completed. In these instances, you will be required to engage an electrician at your cost to carry out the work required.
Important: If a meter is found to be faulty and/or providing inaccurate readings, your previous reads will be revised and adjusted for the difference, if required. The meter provider will undertake this and provide the adjusted reads to us so we can reissue your bills.
2. Meter upgrade
You will generally need a meter upgrade when you install a solar system or change your meter from a single-phase connection to three phase connection. Your solar installer or electrician will advise you if your meter needs upgrading.
You or your solar installer/electrician will need to send us a work request form. Your solar installer/electrician has access to this. If the paperwork has all the required information, your meter exchange process will commence.
There may be charges for upgrading a meter and this would be discussed at the time and dependent on the types of work required to complete the work, the meter provider will provide advice at this time.
Also, there may be instances when current safety requirements are not met (such as at older sites) or more work is required before the connection can be completed. In these instances, you will be required to engage an electrician at your cost to carry out the work required.
Important: The submission of the work request will be deemed as receiving consent.
If changes are required to your original request, we’ll let you know so you can reconfirm your consent for the upgrade to proceed.
You’ll be contacted by Dodo or directly by your distributor to schedule the meter exchange within 15 business days of receiving your consent for the meter upgrade or on a date outside this timeframe if required.
Important: If we’re unable to schedule an appointment with you, we’ll replace the meter within 15 business days of receiving your consent. You’ll receive a “Planned Interruption Notice” from us or our metering coordinator providing a minimum of four (4) business days’ notice of the scheduled exchange date.
Timeframe exceptions
If one of the following occur, the timeframes above won’t apply, and we’ll inform you directly that there’s been an issue:
- You haven’t entered into an agreement with us for the meter to be installed;
- The meter at your property is not accessible, safe, or ready for the meter to be exchanged;
- Installing the meter requires interrupting supply to another property;
- You haven’t met the conditions that are required of you under your connection contract with your distributor;
- You've entered into an aggregated agreement with us that says the timeframes don't apply;
- Augmentation is required for the purposes of the connection alteration and has not been completed; or
- The meter is part of a retailer planned meter deployment or for a new connection.
- Remote & Rural sites will be attended to within the 15-business day rule on the proviso qualified technicians are available. We will discuss any concerns at the time of the notification.
If one of the issues above has occurred, this will need to be corrected before we can progress the meter upgrade. When we’ve been notified that it’s been fixed, we’ll arrange for the meter upgrade to start again within the standard timeframes.
Questions?
To find out more about meter exchanges, you can contact us at [email protected].