TNB to install smart meters for more than 9 million households
KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 9.1 million households across the peninsula are expected to be installed with a Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) smart electric meter by 2026.
The Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) or smart meter is an electronic device that records consumption of electricity and communicates the data to the power supplier, TNB, for monitoring and billing.
Energy Commission Industry Operations director Roslee Esman said 300,000 smart meters had been installed in Melaka between 2016 and last year under phase one of the Regulatory Period 2 (RP2).
In the second phase of RP2, he said TNB was planning to deploy the meters for 1.2 million customers in the Klang Valley between this year and next year.
“We have successfully installed the smart meters in Melaka.
“For this year and next year, TNB aims to install the meter for 1.2 million consumers in the Klang Valley.
“The cost of installing the meters in RP2 (both phases) of this project is RM1.2 billion,” he said at a media briefing session here.
TNB Advanced Metering Infrastructure (network distribution department) project director Mohamed Ghous Ahmad said they were still putting up the infrastructure in the Klang Valley.
He said the TNB infrastructure involved the installation of radio frequency monopoles setting up a network system before the smart meters could be installed.
He added that some 200 radio frequency monopoles had been installed since April and another 740 such poles would be installed in the Klang Valley.
“We have yet to fix the smart meters in households as we are still putting up the poles at designated locations,” he said.
Present were Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Ministry deputy secretary-general Noor Afifah Abdul Razak and TNB chief corporate officer Datuk Roslan Ab Rahman.
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Wireless Communications Centre expert and lecturer Chua Tien Han dismissed fears that the smart meter would see a highlevel of radiation.
“It is safe...it does not pose any danger. This is just a misperception of the people,” he said.
Noor Afifah said the smart meter would indirectly spur the country’s economy as it offers an investment opportunity to companies nationwide and at the same time help create job opportunities.
She said countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Japan had embraced such technology.