GUYANA Power & Light (GPL) has commenced the first phase of its Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) programme, that would provide customers with more accurate meter reading every month, offer information about their energy usage and a system for recognising power outages without their input.

The project is financed under a loan agreement with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), facilitated by the Government of Guyana for the sustainable operation of the electricity sector and improved quality of service.
Under this part of the pilot project, 2,000 smart meters, which are a component of the AMI system, will be installed.
The pilot zone extends from Avenue of the Republic to Vlissengen Road and North Road to South Road, including Regent, Robb and Charlotte Streets.
The scheme incorporates technology that allows electric meters to be read remotely and provide a wide range of benefits to customers, as well as operational savings through increased efficiencies to GPL.
Additionally, the AMI will, eventually, be implemented countrywide and serve as a platform to eliminate manual meter reading, provide remote monitoring of the electricity distribution system and enable customers to manage their bills by tracking their consumption and demand via internet.
“AMI has been proven to provide wide-ranging operational and customer benefits including improved customer service and more options for our customers to manage their energy bills,” said John Cush, Consultant with responsibility for the implementation of the Sustainable Operation of the Electricity Sector and Improved Quality of Service Project.

138,000 meters
GPL has approximately 138,000 meters scheduled to be read every month but some remain unread because of severe weather, dogs, locked gates or other access problems.
“With AMI, we will be able to, significantly, improve the daily meter reading rate, which will eliminate the vast majority of estimated bills,” Cush said.
Besides more accurate meter reading, AMI will provide customers these benefits:
*remote monitoring of the distribution network which will enable faster and more reliable power outage detection and restoration. In addition, the system will detect low voltage situations impacting a customer’s service.
*an ability to track consumption and demand and provide assistance to adjust consumption to align with budgets, as well as a choice of billing cycles to better meet customers’ cash flow requirements and
* identification of individual service problems that may not be immediately apparent behind a circuit-wide problem.