The Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) has started the first phase of its Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) pilot programme, which will see 2,000 smart meters being installed in the Georgetown business hub.
Under the first phase of the project, meters will be installed in the Georgetown commercial zone from Avenue of the Republic to Vlissengen Road and from North Road to South including Regent, Robb and Charlotte streets, GPL said in a press release yesterday.
The AMI programme incorporates technology that allows electric meters to be read remotely and provide a wide range of benefits to customers, as well as operational savings “through increased efficiencies to GPL.”
It is financed under a loan agreement with the Inter-American Development Bank and facilitated by the Government of Guyana for the sustainable operation of the electricity sector and enhanced quality of service. The programme aims to provide customers with more accurate meter reading every month, information about their energy usage and a system for recognising power outages without customer input, the press release said.
Eventually, the AMI will be implemented countrywide and serve as a platform to eliminate manual meter reading, provide remote monitoring of the electric distribution systems and enable customers to manage their bills by tracking their consumption and demand via the internet.
“AMI has been proven to provide wide-ranging operational and customer benefits including improved customer service and more options for our customers to manage their energy bills,” John Cush, Consultant with responsibility for the implementation of the Sustainable Operation of the Electricity Sector and Improved Quality of Service Project, was quoted as saying.
GPL has approximately 138,000 meters scheduled to be read every month but its officers are often hampered by severe weather, dogs, locked gates and other problems. “With AMI we will be able to significantly improve the daily meter reading rate, which will eliminate the vast majority of estimated bills,” Cush said.
Apart from more accurate readings, AMI will provide customers with remote monitoring of the distribution network which will enable faster and more reliable power outage detection and restoration. The system will also detect low voltage situations impacting a customer’s service. It will also allow them to track consumption and demand, and provide assistance to adjust consumption to align with budgets, as well as a choice of billing cycles to better meet customers’ cash flow requirements and identification of individual service problems that may not be immediately apparent behind a circuit-wide problem.
