Smart meters, ‘Robin Hood Kuwait’
The innovative and eminent Lebanese composer Ziad Rahbani says: “It is true that I did not study veterinary medicine, but I know the animal at first sight!”
O ne of the citizens appointed himself, and from his semi-luxury apartment, a defender of the rights of the poor and marginalized citizens, assumed the role of
‘Robin Hood Kuwait’, and started sending voice messages one after another, attacking the ‘traders’, warning them of their
‘greed and subversive schemes’, and their quest to suck the blood of the poor and needy cit- izens and residents.
The last of these messages was related to his refusal of the Ministry of Electricity’s decision to replace the old and dilapidated meters with new smart meters, and his claim that their installation would affect the life of the working poor class whose electricity would be cut off in the summer heat as soon as the meter’s balance expires, or failure to recharge.
Kuwait has suffered for more than sixty years from the horrific increase in power consumption, and the accompanying waste on the one hand, and the theft of current on the other hand, this is in contrast to the failure to read electricity consumption for many because of the poor quality of meters in homes, factories and buildings.
In order to address all these problems, the government turned its eyes almost ten years ago on electrical and water corruption and decided to modernize the consumption value, collection system by installing smart water and electricity meters.
As usual, the government retracted its promises, and every year we hear about floating a tender to import and install new meters, and a long time passed and we lost more than two billion dinars, without exaggeration, as we are waiting for the arrival of smart meters.
Thanks to the dedicated efforts of the Ministry of Electricity, the Ministry has finally succeeded in installing a few thousand of them in various regions on experimental basis and the rest are being imported and installed to put a final end to this financial and moral bleeding.
Smart water and electricity meters are an important civilized step in collecting state revenues, stopping the terrible waste of public money, reducing the routine work of the ministry, and stopping the miserable and almost impossible task of meter readers, as this smart system will allow the Ministry to control it remotely. The consumer can also recharge it from time to time, and it does not differ from the way the mobile phone works, as there is no service without recharging or paying.
The Ministry can also find out if the device is malfunctioning, or any sabotage or tampering has occurred from a distance. It can also cut off electricity from the consumer, or return it when necessary. Thus, the Ministry will not have to file complaints against laggard consumers in the future.
The smart meters will also relieve the owners of residential buildings which have dozens or hundreds of apartments from the task of holding the residents accountable, pursuing collection and other matters, and the army of employees, whether meter readers or accountants, preparers of monthly consumption statements and other routine work will be dispensed with.
We ask “Robin Hood Kuwait” to honor us with his silence, and stop lamenting the rights of the poor and continue to demand, or dream of, his share of the profits of the Public Institution of Social Security.