Moving a meter box is barely an electrical job. The wiring takes a day. What takes the time is that five separate parties have to act in the right order, and only one of them works for you.
Pricing agreed before we start. We usually reply the same day.
People ring about a meter box the way they ring about a power point, and it is a reasonable assumption: it is a box on a wall, it holds a meter and some breakers, and it needs to be over there instead of here. The physical work really is close to that. A day, mostly.
What surprises people is that the box in front of them is the meeting point of three separate ownerships. The service line from the street is network infrastructure, and in New South Wales only an Accredited Service Provider is allowed to touch it. The meter bolted to the panel has belonged to your retailer, through their metering coordinator, since metering contestability began in December 2017: it is not the network's and it is certainly not ours to unbolt at will. Everything past the connection point is your installation, and that part is ordinary electrical work.
So a relocation is a coordination problem wearing the costume of an electrical one. The retailer has to raise a service order. The metering coordinator has to deal with the meter. A Level 2 ASP has to de-energise the property, move the service and re-energise it. Your network operator, Ausgrid across most of the North Shore, owns the connection at the far end of it. Get the order wrong and everybody turns up on a day when nothing can proceed.
The single most useful thing you can do is settle the new position before anything else is booked, because the metering rules are quite specific about where a panel is allowed to sit, and a position that fails is a position that cannot be quoted, ordered or scheduled. That is the next section.
This is the question every renovation runs into and almost nobody answers before the plans are drawn. The rules are not obscure, they are just written for electricians rather than homeowners.
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What it means: the height band is the easy test and it rules out more proposed positions than anything else, usually because someone wanted the panel tucked low behind a planter or high out of sight above a door. The access rules are the ones that catch people later. A position that was fine on the day can stop being compliant when a gate gets a lock, a hedge grows in front of it or a deck is built underneath, and the meter reader is the person who notices first.
Worth knowing where these rules now live, because it changed and a lot of older advice online has not caught up. The Service and Installation Rules of New South Wales used to carry the metering requirements. The current edition explicitly hands that over: metering for new and replacement installations is now specified by the national Metering Installation Requirements, and the state rules keep only the service equipment side, its location, its accessibility and the locations treated as unsuitable.
The practical reading of both is the same. Everything at the panel, the metering equipment and the main switch, sits between 500 mm and 2000 mm above the floor or the standing platform. Where more than two supplies are metered on one panel there is a little more room at the bottom, down to 300 mm, which matters in blocks of units rather than houses. The installation has to be weatherproof, in sound condition, and reachable safely without hazards or acrobatics.
Then there is the list of unsuitable locations, and it runs to around two dozen entries. The recurring theme is not danger, it is access: a meter that can only be read by someone who brings a ladder, opens a locked gate, edges down a narrow side passage or steps past machinery is a meter that will generate a problem eventually. If you want it out of sight, the side of the house near the front boundary is usually the answer, not the back corner behind the shed.
Every stage below depends on the one above it. Most delays on a meter relocation are not trade delays, they are a stage that was started before the one before it finished.
| Stage | Who does it | What has to be true first |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Position agreed and quoted | You and your Level 2 ASP | The proposed spot satisfies the height and access rules. Everything downstream assumes this is settled |
| 2. Service order raised | Your retailer | You ask the retailer, not the network and not us. Nothing gets scheduled until this exists |
| 3. Meter arranged | Metering coordinator, appointed by the retailer | The service order. The meter is not the network's and not ours to remove at will |
| 4. Supply de-energised | Level 2 ASP | A booked date and someone on site. Power is off at the property from here |
| 5. New panel and consumer mains | Level 2 ASP | A route for the mains to the new position, and the wall ready to take the panel |
| 6. Service reconnected and re-energised | Level 2 ASP | The new installation tested and compliant, not merely finished |
| 7. Meter refitted, CCEW lodged | Metering coordinator and Level 2 ASP | Re-energisation. The certificate goes in within 7 days of the compliance test |
Stage two is where nearly all the lost time sits, and it is the one stage we cannot do for you. The retailer's service order is what authorises the metering work, and retailers vary enormously in how quickly they raise one. Ringing them the day you decide, rather than the day before the trade is booked, is worth more than any amount of chasing afterwards.
Stages three and four sometimes collapse into one visit and sometimes do not, depending on who your metering coordinator is and whether the provider doing the service work also holds metering accreditation. Where it can be done by one party on one day, that is a whole handover removed from the chain, and it is a fair question to ask whoever quotes you.
It is worth being honest about which of these justifies the job on its own and which is better bundled into work you were doing anyway.
By a wide margin the most common reason, and the least negotiable. An extension, a second storey, a new opening or a rendered facade all end with the panel needing to be somewhere else, and the relocation has to be sequenced into the build rather than bolted on at the end.
The mistake worth avoiding is leaving it until the wall is already down. Decide the new position while the plans are still on paper, because the metering rules will veto some of the tidiest looking options.
Gardens grow, gates get locks, a deck goes in underneath, a dog arrives. A panel that was perfectly accessible in 1998 can quietly stop meeting the access requirements without anybody doing anything wrong.
This is the category where the request sometimes comes from the other direction, as a notice rather than a preference. Where that happens, moving it is not really optional, and the good news is that the position can be chosen properly this time.
Where the panel is a bituminous backing board from before 1987, it may contain asbestos, so it cannot simply be unscrewed and re-hung somewhere else. Where there are rewireable fuses and no test buttons, the circuits behind them have no earth leakage protection at all.
If either applies, the relocation and the board replacement are the same job and should be priced as one. There is more on what goes in the new one on our switchboard upgrade page.
A new driveway or carport under an overhead service, a conversion from overhead to underground, a subdivision, a granny flat or a second metered supply all change where the service has to land, and the panel follows the service rather than the other way around.
Where the capacity of the supply is also changing, that is a consumer mains question as much as a metering one, and the two are worth quoting together.
Four things routinely make a meter relocation quote larger than people expect. None of them is discretionary, and all four are easier to hear about now.
RCDs stop being optional
Altering a switchboard or replacing its circuit protection brings the circuits it supplies under the current requirement for residual current protection, at a maximum of 30 mA on final subcircuits in domestic installations.
If the existing board has rewireable fuses, that is not a small addition. It is also the part of the job that does the most good, because it is the only protection in the board aimed at the person rather than the cable.
The old backing board cannot travel
Bituminous switchboard backing boards made before 1987 may contain asbestos, sold under names like Zelemite, Lebah and Miscolite. Intact and undisturbed they are stable. Drilled, cut or unscrewed they are not.
So an old panel is not relocated, it is replaced, and the removal is handled accordingly. Any quote that proposes moving a board of that vintage as it stands should be questioned.
The consumer mains have to be re-run
The cable between the connection point and your main switch cannot be extended to reach a new position. It is replaced over the new route, and the route is what decides the cost: a wall cavity is cheap, a trench under a paved driveway is not.
Where the mains are undersized or ageing anyway, doing this at the same time is the cheapest that work will ever be, because the trench and the outage are already paid for.
The meter usually gets replaced, not moved
The meter comes off the wall as part of the job, and under the rule the AEMC has finalised every home in the national market moves to a smart meter by 2030, with retailers running that rollout.
In practice a relocation is often the moment an old accumulation meter is retired. Your retailer has to tell you about any tariff change that comes with it, and give you access to your real time usage data at no charge.
The Accredited Service Provider scheme is what governs who may work between the network and your property in New South Wales, and it is administered by the state rather than by the network operator. Level 1 builds and extends network assets. Level 3 designs them. Level 2 is the connection level: installing and maintaining the overhead or underground service line between the network and your installation, and energising and de-energising premises at the switchboard.
A meter box relocation sits squarely in Level 2, which is why a licensed electrician without that accreditation cannot legally carry it out no matter how straightforward the wiring looks. It is the same shape of rule as telecommunications cabling needing a registered cabler rather than an electrical licence, and it catches people out for the same reason.
Every job is certified. We lodge a Certificate of Compliance for Electrical Work within 7 days of the compliance test, which since 1 July 2026 goes through the BCNSW eCert portal, and the network is notified of the service work through its own channel. You get copies of both rather than an assurance that it was handled.
No. Moving a meter box means disconnecting and reconnecting the service line between the network and your property, and in New South Wales only an Accredited Service Provider is permitted to do that. The accreditation scheme is administered by the state, and Level 2 is the level that covers connection work: overhead and underground service lines, and energising and de-energising premises at the switchboard. An electrical licence on its own does not include it, and the two are not interchangeable.
Anywhere that meets the metering rules, which is more flexible than most people expect and stricter than most people guess. Everything at the panel has to sit between 500 mm and 2000 mm above the floor or standing platform. The position has to give safe, unhindered access during normal business hours without a ladder, without going through a locked gate and without squeezing down a narrow passage. It also has to be out of direct sun, away from machinery and protected from the weather. Choosing the spot before anything is booked is the single most useful thing you can do.
Because the meter, the service line and the installation belong to three different parties. Since December 2017 the meter itself is your retailer's responsibility through their metering coordinator, not the network's. The service line between the street and your property is network infrastructure, and only a Level 2 ASP can touch it. The wiring past the connection point is yours. A relocation needs all three to act, in order, and the retailer's service order is what starts the clock.
Usually the working day rather than a few minutes. The supply is de-energised, the old panel comes off, new consumer mains are run to the new position, the panel is built and tested, and then the site is re-energised and the meter refitted. Plan for a day without power, put anything temperature sensitive somewhere else, and tell us in advance if there is medical equipment, a monitored alarm or a tenant working from home.
Some of it, yes, and it is worth knowing before you get the quote rather than after. Once the switchboard is being altered, the circuits it supplies have to have RCD protection under AS/NZS 3000. An old bituminous backing board cannot simply be moved and reused, because boards of that era may contain asbestos. The consumer mains have to be re-run to the new position regardless of their condition. None of this is upselling: it is what altering a switchboard triggers.
Almost certainly. The meter is removed and refitted as part of the job, and under the rule the AEMC finalised, every home in the national market moves to a smart meter by 2030, with retailers running the rollout. If yours is still an accumulation meter, a relocation is usually the point at which it is replaced. Your retailer has to give you notice of any tariff change that comes with it, and real time usage data has to be available to you at no charge.
Attending your job is a chargeable callout. We confirm what it costs when you book, and the price for the work itself is agreed before we start, so there are no surprises on the invoice.
Based in Castlecrag, covering all of Sydney. A few of the suburbs we work in most:
Related work: what goes inside the new panel is a switchboard upgrade, the cable feeding it is consumer mains, and a board being rebuilt is the right moment to add surge protection. Older houses having the walls opened often pair this with rewiring. For apartment blocks and common property, see strata electrical. See the full list of locations we service.
Upfront pricing, with the price agreed before we start. We check the spot against the rules before anything gets booked.
