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THE Zimbabwe Electricity, Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) has partnered mobile network operator NetOne in the rollout of smart meters across the country.
Speaking during the roll out at the NetOne High-Value Customer Centre in Harare today, NetOne Chief Operating Officer Jeremiah Munembe said the mobile network operator will provide connectivity for the smart meters that are 4G enabled.
“As NetOne we are a connectivity partner, the smart meter is enabled by 4G technology and our network provides for LTE, advanced LTE and 5G. So we provide connectivity for these smart meters as they connect with the databases as well as the customers in the comfort of their homes. Customers can then go on the web and do their top ups, monitor their usage and they also get text messages when their accounts are depleting. This will improve the way we manage electricity,”
Physical recharging of base stations will be a thing of the past as this can now be done remotely.
“For us smart meters will reduce the cost of travelling out to our sites to go and top up electricity. We can now monitor remotely if there are disturbances with our meters such as lighting strikes which would result in us losing the credits we have, but now because they are all stored in a centralized database we will be making savings,” he said.
The ZETDC Managing Director Engineer Howard Choga said rolling smart meters is part of the building blocks towards a smart grid.
“Digital plays a pivotal role hence NetOne key to this journey.We started with Harare and hope to finish in 44 days and rollout to all other regions.Smart meters are targeting large to medium power users whilst prepaid meters are targeting all postpaid customers,”
He added, “Smart meters comes with a plethora of benefits including customer empowerment and ability to be incharge of your bills,”
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