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.



Turkish Annual Inflation Falls More Than Expected to 44.38%

A shopkeeper uses his mobile phone as he waits for customers at a popular middle-class shopping district in Istanbul, Türkiye March 4, 2024. REUTERS/Murad Sezer/File photo
A shopkeeper uses his mobile phone as he waits for customers at a popular middle-class shopping district in Istanbul, Türkiye March 4, 2024. REUTERS/Murad Sezer/File photo
TT

Turkish Annual Inflation Falls More Than Expected to 44.38%

A shopkeeper uses his mobile phone as he waits for customers at a popular middle-class shopping district in Istanbul, Türkiye March 4, 2024. REUTERS/Murad Sezer/File photo
A shopkeeper uses his mobile phone as he waits for customers at a popular middle-class shopping district in Istanbul, Türkiye March 4, 2024. REUTERS/Murad Sezer/File photo

Turkish annual consumer price inflation fell more than expected to 44.38% in December, official data showed on Friday, with education, housing and restaurant prices leading the rise.

Month on month, inflation was 1.03%, the Turkish Statistical Institute said, compared with 2.24% in November. Annual consumer price inflation (CPI) was 47.09% in November.

Furniture prices rose 2.78% from the previous month, data showed, while telecoms-related prices gained by 1.82%.

In a Reuters poll, the annual inflation rate was expected to fall to 45.2%, with the monthly figure seen at 1.61%, owing to easing food price inflation and a limited rise in energy prices.

The latest inflation print was close to the central bank's midpoint prediction of 44% for the end of 2024.

The bank, having kept its main interest rate steady at 50% since March, launched an easing cycle last week, cutting the policy rate by 250 basis points to 47.5%.

The bank said it will set policy "prudently" meeting by meeting with a focus on the inflation outlook while responding to any expected "significant and persistent deterioration".

The Turkish lira was little changed after the data at 35.3850 to the dollar, hovering around the record lows.

The domestic producer price index was up 0.4% month on month in December for an annual rise of 28.52%, the data showed.