CHIEF Executive Officer (CEO) of Guyana Power & Light Inc. (GPL), Mr. Bharat Dindyal said, last Friday, that the utility’s pre-paid metering project is very healthy.

GPL does not have to market it anymore because the demand is very high and it is selling itself, he told the media during a tour of the  Sophia, Greater Georgetown operations.
Dindyal said there is also a great demand for pre-paid meters and the company has a serious problem maintaining an adequate inventory.
He disclosed that GPL, recently, bought 12,000 of the meters at a cost of US$1.2M and they are about to be exhausted, so the procurement process for more is in train.
Dindyal said GPL acquired 30,000 of the meters in 2009, through funding by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the system is doing extremely well, so far.
He explained that, with their use, there is a level of security as the measuring devices are in homes and record bits of information which are useful to GPL and make consumers consumption conscious.
GPL introduced the meters for domestic and small business use and sections of Georgetown and Berbice were chosen to pilot the scheme, in places such as Bourda Market, Newtown, Kitty, parts of Festival City, North Ruimveldt and Black Bush Polder.

WIDER SOCIETY
Dindyal said those areas were selected because they are representative of the wider society and, for the introduction, two types of the meters were put in place, the Cashpower Rail Split and the Jade Split.
They come in two parts, the actual meter and an interface unit, commonly referred to as the Customer Interface Unit (CIU).
The latter is a 12-key keypad with audible feedback that allows  the entry of tokens and accessing various management functions. It also has a custom liquid crystal display which shows the remaining credit, among other features. Each customer is provided with a pamphlet outlining the available features and how to access them.
The CIU is mainly a remote extension of the meter and communication between the two units takes place in real time. It can be set to information mode by the entry of a three-digit code by the customer that affords electricity consumption over the current or past 30 days or 24 hours. These, along with the display of instantaneous power consumption can aid the consumer in prudent management of electrical energy.
The CIU provides both visible and audible alarms to indicate that the credit level is at or below preset “low level” limits but does not measure power consumption and damage to the unit and/or communication cable will, in no way, interfere with the provision of electricity to the consumer or the related decrease in available credit.
However, such damage will prevent consumers from entering a new voucher into the meter when the available credit expires. To avoid this inconvenience, consumers are encouraged to take care of the CIU and the communication cable.
GPL said a pre-paid meter is great for energy conservation, if you find that you are using too much, as you can respond immediately by turning off appliances within your home.