This proposal discusses the benefits of the smart meters and demonstrates how badly Pakistan needs it in order to reduce line losses, electricity theft and in-efficient use of electricity.
2. Pakistan is swamped with energy crises and it hasn’t been able to meet the energy requirement of the general public for many years. Current shortage of electricity in Pakistan More than 5300 MW The Problem
3. High growth in demand side Slow or no development work in supply side High variability in the usage of energy Electricity theft Reportedly more than 80 Billion per annum Major Reasons
4. Recommendation Pakistan needs to actively engage in looking for means to encourage a more rational use of energy. An infrastructure to provide detailed information electricity usage to both consumers and suppliers In demand-side, consumers can adjust the usage behavior to meet the pre-set target In supply-side, more reliable and secure as the it can better predict the demand and set the prices accordingly.
5. The Solution Smart Metering: It generally involves the installation of a “smart” meter at a residential/ industrial customer and the regular reading, processing and feed-back of consumption data to those customers. A smart meteris a modern, innovative electronic device capable of offering consumers, suppliers, distribution network, operators, generators and regulators a wide-range of useful information, enabling the introduction of new energy services.
6. Smart Meters AMR ( Automated meter reading) AMI (Advanced metering infrastructure) Real time, two way communication Functions of Smart Meters: real-time or near-time registration of electricity use offering the possibility to read the meter both locally and remotely (on demand); remote limitation of the throughput through the meter (in the extreme case cutting of the electricity to the customer) ability to read other, on-premise or nearby commodity meters (e.g., gas, water)
8. Feasibility Technologically, there are no obstacles for the introduction/ rollout of the smart meters. The Italian case More than 30 million smart meters of residential customers Current projects around the world. A logical successor of the mechanical electricity meter Like type-writer and dial-phone are replaced with digital equipment
9. The Benefits Benefit # 1 It will allow the consumers to manage their electricity consumption more efficiently if given the time-based rates High degree of variability in the consumption in different seasons Adjust behavior by consuming less in peak periods and only necessary amount in the off-peak periods
10. Benefit# 2 It will increase the privacy of the consumers and reduce the operational cost of utility by eliminating the on-site visits by the utility to check the meter readings Smart meters can report the readings in remote areas Bill can be charged without site visits Privacy to the customers Reduction in operational cost
11. Benefit # 3 Smart meters cannot be tampered and provide an accurate and actual consumption overview of their region; hence could easily detect any kind of fraud or theft. Mechanical meters Tampered easily Reversed or slowed down Smart meters Cannot be tampered Provide detailed information, hence making it easier to detect fraud.
12. Benefit # 4 It will reduce per-capita carbon footprint that energy customers around the world are striving towards. Smart meters measures the carbon emission due to the usage of electricity Environment-friendly people can make an informed decision about their carbon footprint A positive measure against global warming
13. Benefit # 5 It will allow the utility provider to better forecast the demand with the real-time detailed information and thus set the prices accordingly A latitude for power suppliers of Pakistan Better forecast the energy demand Charge customized right
14. Benefit # 6 Smart meters enable utility providers to cut-off the energy supply of the defaulters without having made a site-visit. Power Cut-off of defaulters with out any fuss created by defaulters
15. Benefit # 7 It will allow rapid outage detection and restoration of service Detection and restoration Guessing game Supplier relies on the customer call about how large and where the outage has occurred.
16. Benefit # 8 It will allow the consumers to make informed decisions when provided with detailed and accurate real-time information about their consumption behavior. Past records of electricity consumption Notify the consumers through a text message when the energy consumption exceeds the target amount Allowing the consumers to adjust their consumption behavior accordingly
17. Benefit # 9 It will reduce the need of more and more energy plants to meet the growing energy consumption demand as it will lower the consumption demand of electricity. Building power plant to meet occasional peak period demand is very expensive. Allows the consumers to “round off the peaks” Increased demand side management By enabling consumers to modify their behaviors.
18. Labor Reduction Cost reduction in call center Billing and Collection Disconnection of defaulters Process Improvement Reduced Energy Theft Increased billing accuracy Tighter billing and collection Infrastructure Improvement More Accurate digital meter Reduce future replacement budget Additional Benefits
22. The energy sector of Pakistan is in no position to incur losses at this troubled stage. More than 80 billion rupees loss per annum More than 400 consumers, in Karachi alone, don’t pay their electricity bill “Most Outages occur due to overloads caused by local pilfering of the systems.” – TahirBasharatCheema (Managing director PEPCO) The Need of Smart Metering Pakistan
23. With smart meters Electricity theft from 10% to 3 % saving more than 30 billion rupees per annum. Mr. SaleemAkhtar(CEO of LESCO) Success of some pilot projects in Shadbagh , Shadmaanand Dehli Gate Shahbagh & Shadmaan11% 2.9 % Dehli Gate 13.2%4.4% The Need of Smart Metering Pakistan: Cont’d…