Uniform Prepaid E-metering System

A big chunk of electricity that power companies generate is lost or remains unaccounted for. This is partly due
to the technical losses at the power plants and in the transmission and distribution lines. There is another 5-7%
loss due to non-technical reasons at customer level such as tampering with the meter, illegal connection and so
on.

Various attempts have been made to address these vexing problems of non-technical losses such as contracting
out meter reading and billing, computerized billing and cut-offs and legal penalties. But nothing has been 100%
successful so far. However, amongst all the efforts and endeavors, the one approach that proved to be consumer
friendly and cost effective was the prepaid metering system.

Pre-payment metering system can reduce accounts receivable and non-technical losses up to zero per cent. The
idea of using prepaid meters to stem the financial drain on Bangladesh power companies was born over ten
years ago. This was a result of collaboration between the BPDB and the KfW Entwicklungsbank, which
provides financial assistance to Bangladesh on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic
Cooperation and Development (BMZ).BPDB received a grant of 4.09 million Euros from the German
government through KfW for the cost of a pilot prepaid metering project in Chittagong. BPDB had introduced
this pilot project in the port city Chittagong, before installing pre-paid meters across the country.

There are two types of prepaid meters that are generally used. (a) Keypad type has a technology for both "unit
transfer system" & "currency transfer system" and (b) Smart Card type has a technology only for "currency
transfer system”. The customers interviewed in the pilot area pointed that they were satisfied using prepaid
meters. The overall customer services had considerably improved in the areas where prepaid meters had been
introduced.

Advantages of Prepaid Meter:

Customers benefit is:
 customers like the new system

 easy and transparent

 they can control their own consumption

 they can control their budget

 no hassles with bill payment, disconnection or reconnection

 there is no minimum charge

 require no deposit

 no more disputed bills

 users receive a 2% discount on the standard electricity billing rate.

 warning for low credit

 negative credit during Friendly hours/Holidays

 emergency credit

 abnormal voltage protection

 automated record keeping

The power company's benefits are:

 upfront payment,

 improved cash flow,

 decreased non-technical losses,

 lower overheads expenses (no meter reading or billing),

 increased revenue,

 no outstanding

 tamper protection

 non-allowance of over sanctioned load

 better load management.

 better customer services

 automated record keeping

 create power saving attitude to the consumers

DESCO's Prepaid Meter Designed by BUET:

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) designed and developed pre-paid meter for end
use electricity consumers. DESCO quickly extended its financial support to BUET for commercialization of
pre-paid meters. DESCO has set up a "Pre-paid meters Production Unit" with the technical assistance of IICT,
BUET at Mirpur.

In the first phase 5000 single phase meters were supplied by BUET from their production house. In the second
phase, another single phase 5000 meter and 1000 three phase meter were produce in DESCO’s own production
house. Up to August 2011 about 10261 numbers of prepaid meters have been installed in Uttara residential area.
Presently the prepaid meter repairing process is going on and the planning for the production of another 20,000
pre-paid meter is all most completed. After the production, these meters will be used in other residential areas
like Gulshan, Banani, Mirpur and Baridhara.

A modern consumer friendly pre-paid metering system has been introduced for the valued consumers of the
capital, by DESCO. This prepaid metering system is a two-way communication based on smart card technology
that allows the customers to charge their advance electricity bill through DESCO's vending station in the
SMART CARD.

How does a pre-payment scheme works?

 The basic Principle of Prepayment is to buy Energy in advance and inform the meter in some ways.

 The credit stored is deducted as per energy usages and the meter will cut the output line as the credit reaches
zero.

 If the consumers buy more credit and recharges, he can enjoy energy usage without discontinuity.

 Vending Stations are used to sell credit to the consumers.

 A number of vending stations are connected to a System Master Station (SMS). The SMS is used to process
the data centrally.

Features of the pre-payment system

 Easy to add credit to the meter through smart card

 Warning for low credit

 Negative credit during Friendly hours/Holidays

 Emergency credit

 Data exchange between meter and the utility

 Tamper protection

 Abnormal voltage protection

 Non-allowance of over sanctioned load

 Automated record keeping

 No outstanding

 Advance collection of bills

 No need for meter reader and billing

 Reduce down the confusion in between the house owner and the tenant.

Uniform Pre Paid e-Metering System:

Electricity is a vital element required for economic growth, poverty reduction and social development. For a
stable and economically viable electricity distribution system and an effective and trust worthy revenue
collection system a country wide pre-paid metering system is evident. An adaptation of pre-paid metering
system can change the needs and the requirements of better solution for the utility companies that make the
whole distribution system more dynamic and digitally enhanced. The Power Division has taken the initiative
through all distribution utilities to implement a pre-payment metering system with a view to reduce non-
technical losses, increase the revenue collection, improve customer's service and reduce the accounts receivable.
Government of Bangladesh (GOB) has given priority to prepayment metering system, considering all the
benefits. A project named "Pre-payment e-metering project” has been taken through BPDB for distribution
entities which has been approved by the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC). Under
this project about 35,000 (31500 single phase & 3500 three phase) prepaid meters will be installed in DPDC,
DESCO, BPDB, REB

Diagrammatic view of Uniform Pre-paid metering System

and WZPDCO distribution areas by April 2012. DPDC is to install 10,000, DESCO will install 10,000 and each
of the utility BPDB, REB & WZPDCO will install 5000 prepaid meters consecutively, under this program. GoB
has a long term plan to install 2 million pre-paid meters across the country as well.

Special features of Uniform Pre paid metering system are:

 System will provide standardized data exchange mechanism.

 The data exchange media will be the smartcard or key code tokens. This will carry both tariff and recharge
amount data from utility to meter and carry usage data from meter to utility.

 A standardized data format for the smartcard has been proposed. Since many manufactures use different
encoding and security within their meter. The meter manufacturer must provide Encrypted Data Generation
SDKSDK/API to create this encoded data from raw data to the utility. generate encrypted that suitable for
the meter to process and understand

 Software of the Pre-Paid Metering System has mainly two parts. The Master Information Center (MIC)
and the Data Network Service Provider (Mobile Network Companies)
 There will be only one Master Information Center (MIC) per utility company. The Master Information Center
(MIC) will comprise of the Database Servers(RDBMS), Routers and the Firewalls, Application Server, Short
Message Server (PUSH-PULL SMS), Accounting and Billing Server.
 The consumer of the electric utility will enjoy credit recharging facilities using Point of Sales (POS) services,
where the utility consumers will come most of the time to recharge their credits
 Utility Vending Stations performs the same function as POS but this will be managed by the utility itself
round the clock.

 A tamper detector sensor shall be provided to detect that terminal cover have been opened either in power
supply or without power supply.
 Load disconnection facilities: The load shall be disconnected by a latching relay if (i) the credit in the meter
have expired and grace period also expired. (ii) the load power threshold has been exceeded.(iii)the meter is
in a tampered state (iv)Neutral missing at source side. The meter shall indicate whether the load is connected
or not and shall display the reason for disconnection. The customer shall not have the option to switch the
contactor manually.
 Load control mechanism to implement Load Management Program: Meters shall have provision to
define the allowable loads for given time periods within a day, there shall be provision in the meter to
accommodate the date of activation of the defined load allocation and Load limit shall be defined in step of
500 W
 The meter shall accommodate the Friendly hours, Weekend and Holidays features. These are time periods
during which the meter shall not cut-off power to consumer

 All tariff calculation will be done within the meter not in the vending stations. The meter is required to
support stepped tariffs structures as well as time-of-use and maximum demand.

 The meter shall have remote communication option which will be able to interface data communication with
the central server from meters. So it could be possible to control the meter from remote if necessary.