More than 39,000 smart meters have been installed successfully under USAID-funded AMI Project which has been implemented in Mepco and Pesco to cater to the small industrial, agricultural (tube wells), and public sector consumers. This project has launched to reduce distribution losses and modernise the electricity metering and billing operations. In Mepco, more than 39,000 smart meters have been installed so far.

These meters were installed in series with existing billing meters and automatically transfers the metering data via GSM/ GPRS communication medium to the server after specified time interval. Under a phase wise programme, the billing operations will be transferred to these AMR meters. One sub division has been effectively integrated with the billing system in order to eradicate any problem that might arise in the operations of the system. After successfully converting the billing of one sub division, the project is in the second phase to integrate other sub divisions with the billing system. A Pakistani company has implemented the complete solution comprising smart meters, IT infrastructure and software. Also, AMI Cell has been established at Mepco office with trained staff for smooth transferring and integration of the billing operations.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2015