Hung Yen (VNA) – The Hung Yen Power Company (HungYen PC) is striving to complete the installation and replacement of existingmeters by electronic meters for all customers in the northern province by the endof this year, according to Hung Yen PC Vice Director Ngo The Tuyen.

This modern power metering system aims to better control thepower supply situation in the locality and detect incidents in a timely manner,while forecasting the power demand of customers.

On that basis, the electricity sector has a plan to invest,repair and upgrade the power system appropriately, and offer solutions toimprove the efficiency of electricity production and business.

At the same time, the replacement of existing meters aims toimprove the quality of infrastructure and customer services, enabling the electricity sector to design plans to invest, repair and upgrade the power system andgive solutions to enhance the efficiency of power production and business activities.

As part of efforts to implement Decision No. 1670/QD-TTgissued on November 8, 2012 by the Prime Minister on the approval of a smart powergrid development project in Vietnam, over the past time, Hung Yen PC has rolledout many solutions to grid improvement to ensure that the remote meteringsystem is fully invested for all electricity users.

To date, the firm has installed nearly 340,000 electronicmeters among nearly 4.5 million power customers.

In order to ensure transparency in the replacement of themeters, before conducting the work, power agencies will invite customers toconfirm the power consumption record and witness process of removing the old metersand installing the electronic meters.

For customers, the electronic meters provide them withvarious benefits, including higher accuracy which can help them monitor powerconsumption, resulting in power savings. The meters are also integrated withcommunication technologies to support remote automatic meter reading. Datacollection by this method helps to monitor the operation status ofsubstations and cables, and improves grid safety.

It will also improve labour productivity andreduce labour costs and risks of human errors. Workers' accidents onthe job are also expected to be reduced.

Customers can monitor their electricity consumption via thecustomer care application of the EVN Northern Electricity Corporation, which resultsin higher transparency of their electricity receipts and helps customers to activelyuse power in an effective and economical manner.

For the power sector, the system contributes to improve itsmanagement and operation quality with higher accuracy and efficiency.Particularly, the system will give alert when power leaking occurs, enablingthe power agency to fix the problems.

Along with installing electronic meters, Hung Yen PC hasalso installed a remote data collection metering system at more than 4,800telemetry points and more than 270,000 single-phase electronic meters. Theconnection rate of telemetry system has reached over 98%.

Pham Minh Dang, Director of the Hung Yen PC said thatpreviously, during each period of meter readings and recording, workers had todirectly go to the customer's place to record the power consumption number,then return to update it on the system to make receipts. For high workload withmore than 42,400 customers, it is difficult to avoid errors during thisprocess, he said.

However, thanks to the smart metering system, the recordingof electricity consumption of customers is processed automatically andaccurately, reducing errors and confusion in the process. At the same time, theelectricity bill calculation is done in a timely manner, he said

The power unit of Hung Yen city has been the first in theprovince to complete the replacement and installation of electronic meters for100% of its customers./.