Nearly 80 per cent of large power consumers have been connected to outdoor meters as Kenya Power moves to deepen use of technology to enhance efficiency.
The outdoor metering project involves installation of smart meters atop a pole to ease access by Kenya Power staff and reduce disturbance to customers during reading and inspection of meters.
The undertaking is part of the smart metering project that will be subsequently spread to other power consumers.
The project targets all existing large power consumers. About 5,600 outdoor meters will be installed near customer premises at a cost of Sh3.2 billion.
Large power consumers account for about 55 per cent of Kenya Power’s revenue from electricity sales. To date, 4,426 outdoor meters have been installed near customer premises.
“Outdoor metering is expected to streamline operations and consequently enhance revenue collection from electricity sales. This technology is critical especially at this time when the company is targeting increase the rate of electrification in the country to achieve universal access by 2020,” said Rosemary Oduor, Acting General Manager for Customer Service.
Smart meters support two way communication between Kenya Power and the meters making it possible to carry out real time monitoring of energy consumption hence detect when any anomaly in supply occurs.
With the technology, it is also possible to read meters remotely, disconnect and reconnect remotely in the event of non-payment, reducing the need for sending technicians to site.
“We introduced a smart metering technology solution to enhance revenue protection and customer satisfaction. In addition to generating automatic surveillance alerts, smart metering enables remote meter reading, time of use tariff functionality, disconnections and re-connection of supply to customers,” said Engineer Oduor.