Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa) intends to replace conventional meters in the Doha area by smart meters by 2016, an industry source has said.
Prime Minister and Minister of Interior HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani had launched the smart meter system for remote readings of electricity and water consumption in January this year.
Smart meter deployment provides real-time information on the energy, water or natural gas consumption of a building.
At present, meter readings have to be conducted separately for water and electricity for each housing unit or building. This process is labour intensive and smart meters will help automate this process.
"In an endeavour to offer better energy management solutions to consumers, Kahramaa has leveraged the collaborative understanding of Information Technology and the power sector to launch its smart meter project," Expotrade, a global conference and event organiser, said.
The country's steady movement towards an overall smart energy approach is supported by the installation of smart grid projects and its related technologies such as smart meter that benefits consumers and energy providers in ways more than one.
Additionally, it enables Kahramaa to optimise energy consumption and promote energy efficiency.
Installing a smart meter helps keep a check on power distribution, monitors consumer usage and communicates revenue unit of energy data in real-time between any two-distribution points.
According to an industry study, smart metering market will reach 16.1mn units by 2022 and 86% of homes and businesses in the Gulf countries are expected to have smart meters by the same year.
One of the most advanced in the world, Qatar's smart meter system is based on a remote reading system that sends electronic readings to the energy supplier automatically.
It is equipped with consumption data recording modules for electricity and water as well as GPS modules for localising individual metering points.
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