Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu must order electricity distribution companies to call an immediate halt to the smart meter rollout following recent explosions ETU Victorian State Secretary Dean Mighell said today.

“A series of recent explosions involving the distribution company Jemena has shown smart meters to be unreliable and dangerous both to our members who are installing or repairing them and to householders,” Mr Mighell said.

“Premier Ted Baillieu must show some leadership and at the very least call an immediate halt to the rollout until a full and transparent assessment of smart meters is undertaken.”

Mr Mighell pointed to the Australian/New Zealand Wiring Rules regulations clause 1.71 which have as an essential requirement that electrical equipment which forms part of an electrical installation shall be selected and installed to operate in a safe and reliable manner in the course of normal operating conditions” and further that it “not cause a danger from electric shock, fire, high temperature or physical injury in the event of reasonably expected conditions of abnormal operation, overload, fault or external influences that may apply in the electrical installation.”

“I believe the distribution companies now have an obligation to the ETU and indeed the Victorian community as a whole to demonstrate beyond doubt that smart meters already installed meet those essential requirements,” Mr Mighell said.

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