MUSCAT: Nama Electricity Distribution Company (NEDC), Oman’s sole electricity distribution company outside of Dhofar Governorate, has revealed that its ongoing drive to install smart meters in place of conventional analog devices that require onsite visits by meter readers, has uncovered around 2,400 instances of meter tampering and other forms of illegal metering activity during 2023.
An estimated 671,000 smart meters have been installed across the Sultanate of Oman as part of the National Automated Meter Reading (AMR) project since the start of the initiative n 2021 till the end of 2023. They include around 219,000 meters installed in 2023 alone, up from 196,000 a year earlier. As of 2023-end, the programme had covered around 47 per cent of NEDC’s customer base.
Nevertheless, the rollout continues to deliver significant benefits in the form of, among other things, power loss reductions, highly accurate automated meter readings, and timely and correct billing. At the same time, it has unearthed instances of illegal meter tinkering as well.
“Intensive inspections were conducted on connections and meters to detect tampering, wrong connections, or faulty and defective meters. These efforts led the detection of over 2,400 tampering and illegal cases along with more than 7,700 defective meters directly contributing to the reduction in losses,” NEDC stated in its 2023 Annual Report.
Importantly, system losses in the wake of the AMR project implementation dipped 0.45 per cent to 8.22 per cent in 2023, down from 8.67 per cent a year earlier.
“This improvement can be attributed to various procedures and operations implemented by the company to improve the distribution losses, including: Switching to AMR meters contributed to enhancing the quality of meter reading and enabling remote monitoring of meter performance; and Improved supervision and follow-up on manual meter reading operations, including a dedicated team to validate readings and ensure their accuracy,” the state-owned utility noted.
The performance of meter readings also soared to 97.06 per cent, according to NEDC, a member of Nama Group. It attributed the improvement to the advanced metering technologies underpinning the project.
“By replacing outdated meters with modern, more accurate counterparts, NEDC significantly improved the reliability and precision of its readings,” the company said.
“AMR systems aimed to optimize costs, reduce operational losses, and facilitate a modernized infrastructure as NEDC intends to improve metering operations by collecting automated, real-time data, which will increase efficiency. Our goals include maintaining accurate readings, providing customers with real-time information, and lowering operating expenses,” it added.
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