Intellihub helps consumers get smart with energy use
Technology supports grid reliability and reduced energy bills
Intellihub is using CEFC finance to help ramp up the rollout of its smart technology solutions which put power into the hands of consumers by enabling them to orchestrate the operation of solar panels, home batteries, EV chargers, air conditioning and more.
$50 million
CEFC commitment
Helping
consumers control energy use
Assisting
grid management
More and more Australians are generating and storing their own electricity, using the energy of the sun to power their cars as well as their energy efficient appliances, backed up by home batteries. By using smart meters and smart behind the meter devices we can better understand when and how we use energy and make changes that will save on power costs as well as reduce our carbon footprint.Monique MillerCIO - Renewables and Sustainable Finance, CEFC
Our investment
The CEFC has committed $50 million to Australia’s largest provider of smart metering devices, Intellihub, to finance a ramped-up deployment of smart meters and to drive investment into behind-the-meter (BTM) devices that give consumers control over their own energy systems.
The CEFC played an important role in supporting the development of Intellihub between 2018 and 2021, committing $75 million to the growth of the smart metering business. CEFC finance was repaid in December 2021, after Intellihub announced a world-first $1.45 billion green loan facility to support rapid rollout of smart meters in Australia and New Zealand.
The CEFC is again working with Intellihub to support better management of the energy grid and to help Australians better understand how they can save on power costs and reduce their carbon footprints.
An ecosystem of retailers and services
As a digital energy management specialist, Intellihub provides smart metering devices and services to more than 50 energy retailers across Australia and New Zealand and manages more than 2.5 million advanced smart meters.
Intellihub has developed an ecosystem of products, services, technologies and partners which includes EV charging solutions company EVSE, energy management software venture Evergen, smart pool company Pooled, TasMetering, New Zealand data solutions provider Influx, GreenSync and CrescoNet.1
Separately, the CEFC committed a total of $7.4 million to GreenSync to support the company’s development between 2017 and 2022 when the investment was repaid, following the acquisition of GreenSync by CrescoNet.
OUR IMPACT
Savings through smart meter deployment
The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has made a draft rule2 to accelerate the deployment of smart meters to energy customers by 2030, bringing to life foundational recommendations from its smart meter review and placing consumers at the forefront of the transition to net zero.
The AEMC estimates an accelerated deployment of smart meters targeting universal uptake by 2030 would provide net benefits of $507 million for New South Wales, Queensland, Australian Capital Territory and South Australia.
Smart meters help consumers measure, balance, control and dispatch energy from their energy assets, from solar panels to home batteries EV charging infrastructure, air conditioning and hot water systems.
Smart BTM devices give consumers the ability to manage their electricity consumption, tapping into lower cost power prices and limiting demand peaks on the energy grid.
As the share of renewables increases in the grid, these smart technologies can give grid operators real time information about energy consumption to better manage grid reliability.
Developing digital infrastructure for demand flexibility
Intellihub and ARENA3 are co-developing digital infrastructure in the form of a demand flexibility platform to enable the orchestration of more than 100,000 devices totalling over 500MW on the demand flexibility platform.
Separately, ARENA and AEMO are developing a national consumer energy resource data exchange4 to make it possible for energy companies to better integrate small-scale energy resources – such a rooftop solar and home batteries – into the electricity system.
2 AEMC, Accelerating smart meter deployment, Rule Change: Open.
3 ARENA, Intellihub demand flexibility platform project overview
4 AEMO, Collaboration set to change the game in consumer energy data exchange
