Australian renewables agency backs smart-meter energy

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) has supported a $5m investment in Mojo Power, described as an electricity retailer that aims to educate households in reducing energy consumption. For a monthly subscription, Mojo customers gain access to electricity at rates that cover only the expected cost of delivering it, and receive a ‘smart meter’, which helps them use less electricity and get more out of solar panels and battery storage.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) has backed a $5m investment in Mojo Power, an electricity retailer that helps households consume less energy and is already taking customers in New South Wales.

The company works on a subscription model, where a monthly fee gives customers access to electricity at rates that only cover the expected cost of delivering it. Unlike other retailers who make money by adding a mark-up to wholesale rates, Mojo said it only made money from a customer’s subscription fee, not from their energy use.

It provides customers with a smart meter, which it says will help customers use less electricity, as well as get the most out of solar panels and battery storage. Mojo told Guardian Australia it would soon be offering its own solar and battery products to help customers buy even less power.

The chief executive of Mojo, James Myatt, said the company was “absolutely aligned” with the customer’s objective to pay less for the electricity they need.

“Traditionally we invest in technology companies but Mojo is a business model that we think is really disruptive,” said Mark Bonner from Southern Cross Renewable Energy Fund, an investment fund jointly created by Arena and Softbank China Venture Capital, which made the investment for Arena.

“Mojo isn’t incentivised to prevent you using less energy,” he said.

Bonner said it was Australia’s first retailer-led roll-out of smart meters, which were essential for designing and optimising solar and battery solutions. Without detailed information about what time of the day customers used electricity, it was impossible to know what kind of solar and battery setup would work for them.

“Using state-of-the-art smart metering technology, Mojo will be able to analyse customer usage data with a view to optimising energy use and demonstrating how households could benefit from renewable energy technologies,” said the head of Arena, Ivor Frischknecht.

“If Mojo successfully taps into the Australian market, it could encourage even more households to invest in solar, which in turn will help drive down costs.

“It also has the potential to accelerate the growth of Australia’s emerging battery storage industry as consumers look for more value from their rooftop systems.

“You’d expect retailers to be far and away the dominant vendors of solar panels.

“But that’s not the case.”

He said that was evidence that the traditional business model where retailers make money from customers using more energy was driving down the use of solar. There have also been cases of electricity retailers excluding solar customers from their discounted rates, which can eliminate any cost savings provided by solar.

Mojo currently offers three subscription plans from $30 to $45 a month. More expensive options provide more features, like live energy usage and more support.

Mojo did not reveal when it would start offering solar and battery solutions.



Bruce Mountain, an electricity market analyst and director of CME consultancy, said a similar type of subscription business model had been used for large industrial electricity users, except in those cases, the customers took on the risk of being exposed to a highly fluctuating “spot pricing” for power.

Mojo would instead be offering standard pricing structures for electricity – peak and off-peak, or flat pricing – which it said would only reflect its “anticipated purchase cost”.

Because Mojo charges a subscription to all customers, regardless of how much energy they use but offers cheaper electricity rates, the service is likely to be most beneficial for heavier electricity consumers.

“Our pricing offer is more attractive for larger users of electricity,” Mojo Power chief marketing officer, Mark Khademi told AdNews in January. “These tend to be larger family homes with kids.”

Arena usually invests in technology companies, but this investment is really in a business model, Frischknecht said. “The future is more about new business models and changes to the regulatory environment than it is just fancy new technologies,” he sad. “Technologies are a part of it but they’re only a small part.”



Arena is charged with making investments that improve the competitiveness and supply of renewable energy in Australia. They have a number of investment priorities, including one titled “integrating renewables into the grids,” which is primarily about encouraging the roll-out of smart grid technology that will facilitate renewable energy systems like solar. Frischknecht said the investment in Mojo fell under that priority.