Power of Choice is the name given to set a regulations designed by the Australian Energy Market Commission to give you greater choice in the delivery of some electricity services that came into force in 2017.

Under these rules, energy retailers - the company you choose to send you your bills - will be responsible for installing any new and replacement meters. For residential and small business customers any new or replacement meter will be a smart meter (also known as digital or advanced meters).

Responsibility for metering services

Ausgrid is responsible for:

• Meter reading, testing and maintenance services of existing legacy Ausgrid meters that have not been installed by retailers under the Power of Choice rule change.*

We will continue to provide reading, testing and maintenance services for meters owned by Ausgrid. This includes all meters that were installed by Ausgrid or an agent of Ausgrid or our predecessor organisations.

If we have identified that Ausgrid metering at your premises is no longer compliant with the National Electricity Rules (for example, not accurate enough or damaged) and requires replacement, we will send a notification to your retailer who are then required to contact you and arrange for the metering to be replaced with a new smart meter.

Where a new smart meter is to be installed, under Power of Choice rules you can request that your retailer install it without the remote communication hardware. The retailer will then be responsible for arranging for the meter to be manually read.

Further information for retailers

Ausgrid is obligated under the National Electricity Rules to provide a standard set of terms and conditions to electricity retailers. These outline the terms and conditions on which Ausgrid will agree to act as the initial metering coordinator with respect to Type 5 and 6 metering installations connected to our network. More information can be found in the Ausgrid Metering Coordinator Services Terms and Conditions below.