Big push for new smart meters to stop load shedding

Eskom chair Mpho Makwana said that Demand Side Management (DSM) programs would allow for improved management of electricity supply and demand in South Africa.

Speaking at the inaugural National Demand Side Management Indaba in Gauteng, Makwana said that the effective implementation of the DSM programme could create a win-win situation for consumers and energy producers.

He said that it would reduce pressure on the national power system while enabling consumers to save costs by being more energy conscious.

Demand Side Management (DSM) is a measure employed by electricity companies to manage demand by motivating consumers to adjust their electricity consumption level and behaviour.

The power utility has embarked on several initiatives such as energy saving through promoting the use of compact fluorescent lights, energy efficiency, demand response, distributed generation and energy storage.

One of the most notable plans to reduce load shedding is the rollout of smart meters.

Eskom’s chief engineer Edison Makwarela said that the rollout of new meters that can be controlled remotely to manage electricity demand and supply presents a lot of opportunities in the country.

Smart meters are an updated electricity management system for both residential and commercial properties. The meter monitors and measures the amount and time of electricity usage and deducts the consumed energy from a prepaid balance supplied by the customer.

According to Eskom, there is a big push for smart meters to be rolled out as quickly as possible.

The company said that a by-product of installing smart meters is that it also reduces electricity theft – eradicating or limiting electricity theft could reduce national load shedding by a whole stage.

Smart meters further provide a more precise outlook of an area’s energy consumption and its peak times of demand and would allow for ‘load rationing’.

Major metros have already embarked on converting meters.

Johannesburg and Tshwane are planning to update their prepaid electricity meters in 2023. Tshwane is going a step further by moving all customers, residential and commercial, to a prepaid system as part of a multi-year project.

The current prepaid electricity voucher system, known as the Standard Transfer Specification (STS), is coming to the end of its lifespan and will no longer produce voucher sequences after November 24, 2024.

The STS generates tokens that are unique to each meter and can only be used by that meter, making it a secure system.

After the STS prepaid meters run out of voucher sequences in November 2024, they will no longer accept new credit tokens, and electricity will stop being dispensed once the remaining credits are used. Any tokens produced after this date and containing the 24-digit number will be deemed outdated and rejected by the meters.

Eskom says it will be ramping up its demand side management (DSM) initiatives in order to better manage the supply and demand of electricity in South Africa.

Makwana added that demand-side initiatives had been implemented all over the world and produced results.

“DSM is not a South African concept. It is a global phenomenon, with the best-in-class countries already using technology to manage demand. The array of policy measures to incentivise demand-side participation, promote energy conservation and reduce peak demand can be replicated in our country,” Makwana said.

With SANews.

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