Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has started installing Smart Meter for households of Kathmandu. This comes as the beginning of the Kathmandu Valley Smart Metering (KVSM) project. This Smart Meter in Nepal will let the people read the meter of their household easily by themselves.
The Smart Meter comes at a very important time as the employees are not able to go to each household to read meters due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, NEA has started to replace the single-phase utility meter with a Smart meter for household customers.
Mr. Barshaman Pun, Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, replaced the single-phase meter in the ward office of Budhanilkantha Municipality-9 in Mandikhatar with a smart meter to mark the beginning of the Smart Meter connection.
How does the Smart Meter by NEA work?
Smart Meter is an electronic device that has an RF module inside them. This device records information about electricity consumption, voltage levels, current, and power factor. The consumers will be able to know about their consumption behavior and the electricity Authorities will be able to monitor and bill the customers accordingly.
The Smart Meters have two-way communication between the meter and the central system. So, the smart meter records real-time data and sends it to the central system at regular intervals.
NEA has connected this IoT utility device with the NEA central system with the use of Nepal Telecom’s SIM card. In addition, this device will also allow NEA to cut off the electricity supply remotely. This is useful if the customers do not pay the bill on time.
Smart billing system
Smart Meter also comes with a smart billing feature. This feature can monitor the time that the customer is using and charge them accordingly. NEA has come up with a new system that allows that to charge according to the time of electricity usage. So, using the Smart meter, NEA will charge more during peak hours and charge less during off-hours and normal hours.
This system by NEA will encourage consumers to control their electricity usage during peak hours. In addition, it will help balance the load to the NEA during these hours.
They are also planning to change electricity charge rates according to seasons. The electricity production is more during the rainy season, so they will charge less during this season. However, they will be charging more during the winter season because electricity production is less during winter.
The Smart Meter supports both prepaid and postpaid functions. Therefore, a consumer can pay in either of the methods.
Related:
- How to pay the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) Bill Online? Here is how you can read your meter online and pay digitally
- NEA to provide a 20 percent discount to 3.8 million consumers
Advantages of the Smart Meter
- Smart billing system
- Regular remote monitoring of electricity usage
- Prepaid and postpaid payment options
- The consumer can monitor their electricity consumption easily
- Also, reduction in operation cost as the human manpower needed to read the meters from individual houses are no longer necessary.
“The cost of 2,500 to 3,000 employees would be reduced in the coming days as there would be no need for staff for meter reading after the use of smart meters.”
-Kulman GHising, Managing director of nea
“The installation of the smart meter can improve efficiency and modernize the service provided by the state. This is a milestone towards meeting the government’s target to make prosperous Nepal and Happy Nepali.”
-Barshaman Pun, Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation
This initiative marks a positive step for the development of NEA as well as the country itself. Let’s hope that the Smart Meters will be implemented in all households very soon.
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