Cynthia Bannerman, explaining the advantages of the smart metre to the assembly members
THE POWER Distribution Service (PDS) is taking steps to introduce a “cardless” metering system in Tema called Automated Reading Metre (ARM) which will permit customers to recharge their metres without the usage of a card.
According to PDS, ARM also called Smart metre, comes with a technology that will also permit PDS to communicate with the metre from their offices without customers having to visit where they are stationed.
Cynthia Bannerman, Tema South District manager made this known during an engagement with assembly members and opinion leaders in the area, to educate them about the new metres, ahead of installation in areas such as Community one to six, Tema Newtown and part of the Heavy Industrial Area.
“We as a company are not delighted about the ordeal our customers encounter when using the current metres. Challenges such as error on the metre, faulty metres, battery issues, update issues which has to do with time and date.
“With the current system, you have to slot the card before you can come and buy, and sometimes our customers do that but in a hurry to come and buy power, they are not able to do that before purchase, so you visit a vendor and you are told go back to slot and these are some of the inconveniences we want to put an end to,” she stated.
She said the smart metering would also phase out the variety of metres already in existence under a project sponsored by the World Bank, thus customers are not supposed to pay anything for the metre replacement.
The new metres, the district manager said would allow PDS to engage disconnections and get notifications when the metre is tampered with.
PDS is able to monitor the metre in their office without necessarily going to the customer’s house, with the installation of the automated metre reading facility, Mrs. Bannerman explained further.
She mentioned delivering quality, user friendly and reliable power delivery to their customers as some of the advantages of the new technologies being introduced by PDS.
The manager was optimistic that with the introduction of the new metre service delivery to their customers; the challenges which have affected the customers over the years would be eliminated.
“Management in a bid to eliminate or reduce the challenges associated with the current metres, has directed that all prepayment metres in the South District should be replaced with smart metres,” according to her.
Meanwhile, participants expressed excitement about the new metres PDS intend to introduce, to do away with numerous challenges customers are currently facing with the current meters.
Customers under the Tema South District are going to be the first to benefit from the smart metre system before it could be replicated in other districts under Tema.
From Vincent Kubi, Tema