Meralco to install 3.3 million smart meters
By Myrna M. Velasco – May 26, 2020, 10:00 PM
from Manila Bulletin
To prevent non-real time billings for consumers in the future, power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) said it will be deploying 3.3 million smart meters in the medium term.
Ray C. Espinosa
(Photo source: from https://www.meralco.com.ph)
During the company’s annual stockholders meeting on Tuesday, Meralco President and CEO Ray C. Espinosa indicated that the immediate plan which shall start next year will be completing the rollout of 145,000 smart meters both for its prepaid electricity service (PRES) and for its post-paid subscribers.
The pilot installation phase for the post-paid smart meters or the so-called advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) will just be initially at 5,000 meters; then will be ramped up in the next three years.
The utility firm deemed that with smart meters, bill confusion such as the one arising from the “estimated billings” during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) could be avoided, because the smart meters provide “real time” readings of the consumers’ electricity usage.
Smart metering, which is a sub-set of smart grid innovation in the power sector, sets in place a system where the meter reader no longer needs to manually enter the numbers from the meter.
For the consumer in particular, one obvious advantage would be the information that may be provided in smart meters that will guide them in managing their electricity consumption –that way, they can also manage their budgets.
These are also called “intelligent meters” because they offer two-way communications capabilities between the meters and the utility as well as through the entire electricity grid, thus, enabling the utility to monitor processes or signals in the network more efficiently.
For the wider core of smart grid, it has been noted that “the data that can be captured may include those that have eventual bearing on load forecasting, load growth, asset management, outage management and other operational efficiencies that can be instituted both at the consumer level and/or in the utility’s network.
As emphasized, the crucial first step is for Meralco to modernize its electric grid; and that is a venture that it had already lodged with the regulators for approval.
