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INTELLIGENT SMART METERS

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• Installed inside unprotected enclosures / buildings: Enclosures / Buildings are not fitted with intruder detection equipment to inform security response to react immediately to prevent damages, tampering and theft of equipment. • Normal padlocks are cut-off easily by intruders to gain access to the inside of enclosures and repair and maintenance teams are only aware of these conditions when it gets reported which can be at times days’ after it has been vandalized. Tampering with electrical equipment especially meters can easily be done unnoticed by the Municipality’s own staff or any other person having access to the enclosure. • Inaccessible Meters: A large number of consumption meters are installed inside the dwellings of customers. These difficult / inaccessible meters for the staff of the Municipality is making it easy for the customer to tamper with their installed meter and is making it a nightmare for the Municipality to exercise proper control and monitoring over these meters. Maintenance and repairs are also difficult which result that the useful lifespan of the meters is decreased much sooner. • Outdated Pre-payment Metering Technology: Different meters with different technology are installed in all areas of the Municipality. Most of the older type of pre-payment meters are a challenge for customers when it comes to the loading of purchased tokens and more than often the Municipality’s own staff needs to load tokens for customers which is time consuming and costly especially when it is done after hours. Pilot wire type of pre-payment meters become a challenge when there are cable faults as it is almost impossible to locate a fault on the pilot wires. Certain wireless communication meters are also a challenge as they are limited in range/distance to ensure proper communication between the customer keypad and meter, exposed to interference of other transmitting frequencies etc. The over complication of “smart metering”, some systems focus more on all the 1000’s of features the meter has, instead of focusing on the efficiency and quality of the meter and metering management system. • Outdated Conventional (Credit) Consumption Meters: There are still a large number of conventional meters that are installed throughout the Municipality. Conventional meters are challenging as physical meter readings need to be obtained on a monthly basis to produce an “accurate” customer bill, which in itself becomes a challenge and utilizes more human resources which is also costlier. The calibration of the meters is a challenge as different calibration setting were utilized years ago in comparison with today. Consumption can be read incorrectly, not read at all or can be estimated where there are access challenges to reach the meter. Customers are not in control and can’t monitor their consumption in comparison with pre-paid and smart meters because they use now and pay later , which also more than often raises queries with the Finance Revenue section. Bills can be the unaffordable for some customers and it becomes difficult to collect revenue after electricity was consumed and the customer can’t pay for it. • The Physical Condition of Existing Installed Consumption Meters: Large numbers of meters are beyond their useful lifespan, security,effectiveness and safety are compromised. • The absence of a Meter Data Management System (MDMS): The collecting of meter data can be utilized for reporting capabilities for load and demand forecasting, management reports, and customer service metrics. Without a MDMS it becomes difficult to accurately monitor and control consumption used throughout the Municipality. It is also useful to store meter reads to assess possible diversion situations and to trigger filed visits to investigate detected diversions as part of a Revenue Protection Management System. • Illegal Connections / Tampering: More than often illegal connections / tampering are made to the metering networks, these illegal connections / tampering damage the network infrastructure and leave meters not working causing power failures, no metering to collect revenue ect. Illegal Connections / Tampering have a negative impact on safety, revenue, service delivery and security.

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