South East Europe style smart metering: The cost effective solution for an ageing network

Among the utilities of the South-East Europe Area, EPCG will be the first to deploy a fully operated smart metering system, covering more than 80% of its Customers in a few years. The deployment of a smart metering project may ensure several benefits for the Distribution Utility, for the Customers and for the whole Electrical Power System. DSO will improve economic and financial performance by reduction of losses, optimization of field operations and improvement / stabilization of credit collection. Consumers will have better services with quicker contract activation, deactivation and modification; thus, their relationship with the DSO will be improved by the diffused availability of information on outages, quality of supply and consumptions. Moreover, detailed information coming from the smart metering will enhance Consumers´ awareness about energy utilization, thus contributing to optimization of energy consumption and economic benefits. A smart metering deployment, once chosen a reliable, “field proven” technology, also involves a strong logistic activity, requiring a jointly coordinated action of the several stakeholders involved within. Finally the head-end system and the meters should be designed to deliver a fine tuned set of functionalities. All these actions, solutions and functionalities are implemented to reach given profitability targets and facing existing problems such as technical and non-technical losses. EPCG, with the contribution of all the involved Suppliers, has been designing and setting up a sustainable and standardized smart metering solution, in order to achieve not only the aforementioned traditional benefits, but also concrete answers to the Montenegrin grid specific needs, arising from ageing and low performance.