Saudi Electricity Company Installs Over 10m Smart Electric Meters

Saudi Electricity Company (SPA)
Saudi Electricity Company (SPA)
TT

Saudi Electricity Company Installs Over 10m Smart Electric Meters

Saudi Electricity Company (SPA)
Saudi Electricity Company (SPA)

Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has installed 10 million smart electricity meters all over the Kingdom, of which four million were built from locally manufactured components.

Customers will be able to take advantage of SMP features after all three phases of the project have been completed: meter replacement, telecommunications connection, and billing tie-in.

Last year, SEC announced that the project to install smart electricity meters is going according to plan where the mechanical meters were replaced with smart ones, without any additional charges to customers.

The meters conform to the best local and international technical standards and specifications.

Smart meters fully automate the reading/billing process and enables the customer to examine and monitor their consumption in almost real-time with granular detail and optimize their consumption patterns for maximum efficiency.

The company said its huge project was accomplished in record time, not exceeding 14 months.

CEO of SEC Fahd al-Sudairi said with the installation of the 10 millionth meter, the company would have completed installing and replacing the mechanical meters with smart ones, pointing out that the customer will gradually detect the benefit from the services provided by smart meters.

Sudairi expressed the company’s happiness for accomplishing the project on time, despite the difficult and extraordinary circumstances the Kingdom and the world witnessed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The CEO asserted that the project meets the ambitions of SEC to serve its customers, pointing out that the smart meters and their technological and communication systems are resistant to the various climatic conditions.

Smart meters are the company’s most important project towards digital transformation, and it is the pivot for its strategy aiming to raise the standard of services for the better, according to Sudairi.

Smart meters are ruggedly built devices designed to withstand temperatures ranging from as high as 75° C to as low as -10° C. They are impervious to rainwater, dust, and humidity.



Syria to Receive Electricity-generating Ships from Qatar, Türkiye

FILE PHOTO: A view shows electricity pylons in Kiswah, Damascus suburbs, Syria September 8, 2021. REUTERS/Yamam al Shaar/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A view shows electricity pylons in Kiswah, Damascus suburbs, Syria September 8, 2021. REUTERS/Yamam al Shaar/File Photo
TT

Syria to Receive Electricity-generating Ships from Qatar, Türkiye

FILE PHOTO: A view shows electricity pylons in Kiswah, Damascus suburbs, Syria September 8, 2021. REUTERS/Yamam al Shaar/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A view shows electricity pylons in Kiswah, Damascus suburbs, Syria September 8, 2021. REUTERS/Yamam al Shaar/File Photo

Syria will receive two electricity-generating ships from Türkiye and Qatar to boost energy supplies hit by damage to infrastructure during President Bashar al-Assad's rule, state news agency SANA quoted an official as saying on Tuesday.
Khaled Abu Dai, director general of the General Establishment for Electricity Transmission and Distribution, told SANA the ships would provide a total of 800 megawatts of electricity but did not say over what period.
"The extent of damage to the generation and transformation stations and electrical connection lines during the period of the former regime is very large, we are seeking to rehabilitate (them) in order to transmit energy,” Abu Dai said.
According to Reuters, he did not say when Syria would receive the two ships.
The United States on Monday issued a sanctions exemption for transactions with governing institutions in Syria for six months after the end of Assad's rule to try to increase the flow of humanitarian assistance.
The exemption allows some energy transactions and personal remittances to Syria until July 7. The action did not remove any sanctions.
Syria suffers from severe power shortages, with state-supplied electricity available just two or three hours a day in most areas. The caretaker government says it aims within two months to provide electricity up to eight hours a day.