By STAFF REPORTER
JOHANNESBURG– MUNICIPALITIES can now take full control of their revenue by improving billing accuracy thanks to a first-of-its-kind advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) technology that has been launched in South Africa.
Launched at African Utility Week in Cape Town, the Siemens OPEX Model it is anticipated to enhance revenue collection collection as well as enable municipalities cut costs.
Shahriar Khayyam, Vice President for Energy Management at Siemens Southern and Eastern Africa, said the technology was reliable, secure and cost-effective alternative to a standard smart metering solution that required a large amount of capital expenditure for procurement, installation and management.
“A key success factor is that it is a true smart metering solution rather than simply a smart meter,” said Khayyam.
“This means that the meter cost is reduced while the full functionality of the software with all its features can still be used to monitor, control and visualise the usage.”
The Siemens OPEX Model ensures accurate power consumption data is sent directly to a power utility via a network of application servers, enabling them to be paid immediately.
This removes the burden of building and maintaining a complex smart metering solution.
It also delivers peace-of-mind that the deployment will always be available, reliable, highly responsive, and fully secure for mission-critical meter-to-cash process.
The Siemens OPEX Model drives immediate business case return-on-investment with decreased deployment times, no resource ramp up requirement, and no large capital expense of an onsite solution.
The Siemens OPEX Model delivers a revenue security solution by simplifying budgeting with a predictable monthly per meter cost.
It includes an optional smart meter procurement, installation and maintenance service as well as smart meter infrastructure financing.
All of this dramatically improves revenue collection and cash flow compared to current standard transfer specification (STS) meters that are limited to manually recorded prepayment functions residing on the meter.
In South Africa, where it has been launched, municipalities are owed R115-billion. Munipalities also lose between 10 percent and 45 percent of revenue to tampering and theft.
– Guardian