BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – A new metering project aimed at helping consumers to better manage their electrical consumption will soon be implemented by the St. Kitts Electrical Company (SKELEC).
The company would be bringing on-stream Smart Meters, which would be piloted in several areas before it is fully implemented islandwide.
This was according to SKELEC’s Public Relations Officer Gawain Fraites, who was at the time speaking with SKNVibes Business.
He revealed that the company, through the Smart Meters, would make individual households more aware of the level of energy being used by the consumer and appliances at any given time.
“Going forward, we would be implementing Smart Meters. Now, these Smart Meters do two things; they read themselves, but not only read themselves, but update themselves. They would update us regularly but they would also update the users as well. So at any given point of the day, the user can log into the website and see how much they burn at any given time of the day. For example, between 10 and 12 I burn 10 kilowatts.
“Actually, we have a home calculator whereby you can plug in your appliances, how long they run and you would get an approximate figure of how many units, how many consumption hours that these equipment work.”
Fraites noted that this new initiative would assist households to conserve on energy, since this is the new way that the utility provider is looking to go - “energy conservation” and faster billing for the utility users.
“We are starting the pilot project in mid May. We will make an announcement in May. It would begin in Camps, West Farm and Boyd’s…those are going to be the three areas that it would cover. So, we would start there, we will put in the meters, the meters would read themselves and it would send information back to us via the power lines and technology. And the people would get a faster billing because the information is going to the system and processed one time.”
The PRO declared that all meters being used by residential homes in St. Kitts would be replaced after the pilot phase of the Smart Metering Project is completed. He noted that the project would be one which would be completed over a number of years.
“It probably a two, two and a half year, three year project and it would finish in 2017. But that’s where we are heading and that will help a lot in the consumption of energy, not just for the consumers but for SKELEC as well.”
He added that this would help the company monitor the amount of energy they are pushing through their systems in particular areas across the islands. It would also be able to monitor the levels of energy it is losing at any given time and “shave off the cost of producing energy”.
What are Smart Meters?
These are electrical devices which are used to monitor electrical consumption hourly or less and it relays back the reading to the utility provider who in turn uses the reading for billing purposes.
Several developed countries have already implemented these meters into their lifestyle. Currently, however, the UK Government has indicated that it is making them available to all homes by 2020.
