BPC Records Success With Smart Meters

MBONGENI MGUNI
Staff Writer | Monday February 15, 2010 00:00

Following the Block 7 (Gaborone) pilot last November, BPC officials began by a two-month evaluation and assessment period, during which the Corporation and its technical partners gauged the strength of the Hot Water Load Control (HWLC) for wider implementation.

Under the HWLC project, the BPC hopes to save 40 megawatts of energy through the installation of smart meters, which can be remotely used to switch customer's geysers on and off.

On Friday, BPC officials said the meters installed thus far were working as expected and no malfunctions had been recorded. They said backbone infrastructure had been installed and commissioned for the smart meters, while functionality had also been successfully tested.

'Out of an installed base of 466, none has been replaced due to malfunctioning. No customer queries have been received to date.

'System functionality was tested on the installed meter base. The system is working as expected,' the officials said, in a written response to Monitor enquiries.

The officials said presently, the BPC was rolling out the smart meters to the remaining households in Block 7, before moving to adjacent locations, which will be announced in the media. By the end of the year, the Corporation plans to have smart meters installed throughout Gaborone, Francistown, Selebi- Phikwe, Lobatse and Jwaneng.

Thus far, the power utility is enjoying the public's cooperation in the installation of smart meters. Officials appealed to future targets of the meters to be equally cooperative.

'We would like customers to give the necessary support by ensuring that the installers are welcome and given the opportunity to retrofit meters. The Corporation also expects feedback from customers regarding performance of the system and problems that they may be experiencing.

'Customers are advised that the project is of national importance and needs everyone's participation and support,' officials said.

The main objective of the HWLC project is to manage customers' hot water loads (geysers) as a way of controlling demand especially during the two daily peak periods. The HLWC consists of a central system at BPC offices, data concentrators installed at transformers and smart meters and geyser contractors which are being installed in customers' houses.

The smart meters communicate with the central system through a hybrid communication channel (GPRS and PLC).

The HWLC system will manage power supply through remote geyser control, load curtailment and remote disconnection-reconnection of supply to selected customer groups. Groups targeted for the smart meters include customers in the residential and small business categories like small shops, butcheries, bottle stores and hair salons.

Once installed and fully operational, the HWLC system will enable the BPC to switch off geysers for customers during peak periods when demand exceeds supply.  Should the switching off prove inadequate, the smart meters can be remotely configured to limit power supply to required levels. The level of load limit will be determined by the extent of supply constraint being experienced.

The smart meters will enable the BPC to remotely switch off power to selected areas only when severe supply constraints are being experienced.

Officials say the new system has numerous advantages over the present system and methods being used. It is said smart meters will give the corporation flexibility in terms of offering prepaid or post-paid solutions to customers through their ability to function in either mode. The new system will promptly report existence of faults in the network and BPC crews will be able to respond quickly without having to wait for customers to phone. The system allows automatic reconnection and disconnection for change of tenancy and non-payment.

The HWLC system will eliminate the need to estimate bills as meters will be read remotely. When operating in prepaid mode, the new system will allow both remote and manual upload of credit into the meters.

Smart meters are in use in developed countries such as the US, Australia, Britain, Japan, Italy, Canada and others.