Remote meter reading in Zhejiang province, China

Zhejiang province is situated in the east coast of China. It has a total area of 100,000 square kilometres, about 1 third of Italy. Zhejiang Provincial Electric Power Company ZPEPC) is the only power utility in the province The number of its customers exceeds 14,000 000, and the customers at capacity of 100kVA and above take up 2 thirds of its sale but less than 1 percent of its number. After its power plants split out, it is facing more deregulation. To improve customer service and its management, get predominance in the future competition, ZPEPC has been implementing a remote meter reading program covering all customers at 100 kVA and above. There are some problems that must be solved to establish the system: • How to manage such a big system, especially to reduce the complexity of maintenance. • What can the program benefit ZPEPC? Is it a profitable one? • What advantages can customers get from it?