The Director of Contracts Follow-up and Maintenance Department in the Customer Services Sector, Head of the Technical Team for Replacing and Installing Smart Meters in Kuwait, Eng. Malouh Al-Ajmi, said about 600 smart meters are being installed per day in Salmiya before moving on to other areas.
Al-Ajmi added, the ministry has 115 thousand smart meters which are currently being examined and tested, in preparation for their installation.
Al-Ajmi said, in a statement to Al-Jarida, “We have started replacing the mechanical meters with smart meters. He added the ministry had signed a contract to supply 200,000 smart meters last March to form the first stage.
He added the ministry has kick-started the meter installation project on Oct 5 in the Hawalli Governorate.
So far, about 3,000 smart (prepaid) meters have been replaced in investment and commercial establishments.
The engineer spoke of many advantages of installing the smart meters, such as the ease of collecting collect power consumption fees and facilitates the consumer to check his power consumption bill via the ministry’s applications, or through the ministry’s website.
Al-Ajmi said, after the completion of installing the meters in commercial and investment facilities in the Hawalli and Farwaniya governorates, the ministry will move to the next stages – industrial and government sectors, and then to the private housing.
He indicated the work is underway in Salmiya and that between 500 and 600 meters are being replaced each day.
He went on to say, “we have special teams to follow up the installation work, and special teams to follow up on the post-installation work.
He pointed out “through these meters we can discover if there is a malfunction in the meters, or if they stop working, through smart programs.
He pointed out through this system, the Ministry of Electricity and Water can collect debts from customers, by sending them messages for payment, and explained in the event of huge debts of customers, the Ministry is studying the issue to find a solution.
He stressed that the replacement of these meters will be carried out at no cost to the customer.