Bills won’t shoot up due to smart meters: Kahramaa

Tribune News Network Doha Smart meters will not cause any rise in power and water bills, the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) has...

Tribune News NetworkDohaSmart meters will not cause any rise in power and water bills, the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) has clarified.The smart meters are characterised by high accuracy and efficiency, Kahramaa said in a tweet, affirming that the users will only be billed for their monthly consumptions.The smart meters send the required information about consumption automatically through the network without the need for anyone to read it manually, Kahramaa said.The clarification comes in the wake of a series of complaints from residents and citizens of “high readings” by the new meters.The corporation recently finished setting up a system and a communication network central to its smart meter project that seeks to install 600,000 IoT-enabled meters in cooperation with Vodafone Qatar and Seimens by the end of 2023. It has already seen Kahramaa achieving 42 percent of the target. The corporation said the figure would reach 49 percent by the end of this year. As many as 420,000 smart meters would be installed by the second quarter of 2022.The project is a qualitative leap in the process of comprehensive digital transformation, in line with the objectives of Qatar National Vision 2030 in development. While Vodafone Qatar will secure the network necessary for the system’s operations, Siemens will provide the project with an infrastructure that includes the latest technologies, devices and advanced software used to connect and integrate intelligent control systems with the basic system for billing, monitoring and instant remote reading throughout Qatar.The smart meters will enable Kahramaa to remotely read water and power consumption, cut off services and reconnect them five minutes after the dues are cleared. They will also enable the corporation to obtain readings for the final liquidation of the meter in any property in about 10 minutes.Users can track the status of their balance and the amount due according to the monthly consumption via a mobile application to avoid any interruption in the service. The meters will operate through an independent internet network dedicated for this purpose linked to the central system under the supervision of Kahramaa. Users will not incur any costs for replacing their traditional meters and installing smart meters.The adoption of the fully automated system will contribute to saving energy consumption, through the huge database and information that will be available to Kahramaa, which will enable it to accurately identify consumption patterns in the country, and use this valuable information in planning and management more effectively than before.