About 3 million smart meters are expected to be installed across Iran for high-consuming subscribers in agricultural, industrial and household sectors by next fall, the head of Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (Tavanir) said.
“The initiative is part of the plan to install 4.5 million smart meters with priority accorded to high-consuming subscribers,” Arash Kordi was also quoted as saying by ISNA.
About 1.5 million smart meters have been installed over the last four years and close to 3 million subscribers will get the device by September 2023, he added.
Kordi noted that equipping energy-intensive agricultural, housing and commercial units will enable Tavanir to monitor consumption remotely and if necessary, the company will be able to cut electricity supply remotely.
“Even illegal cryptocurrency mining centers across Iran can be identified and disbanded much easily and faster,” he said.
High-consuming subscribers use more than 450 kWh of electricity per month.
On the benefits of using smart meters, the official said these devices automatically record electricity use and electronically report that information to the utility company at regular intervals.
These meters provide secure data that can show peak usage and prevent outages, he added.
“To complete the second phase of the National Smart Metering Program, a contract has been signed by the government-affiliated Tavanir with SATKAB, a subsidiary of the Energy Ministry, which is making progress,” the head of Tavanir said.
“As per the agreement, SATKAB is obliged to produce and install 4.5 million smart meters in the agricultural, industrial, commercial and household sectors in the next two years.”
SATKAB specializes in providing investment and consultation to water, power and wastewater industries.
Farming Sector
The farming sector, with about 700,000 electricity meters, consumes about 50% of Iran’s total power generation of 60,000 megawatts per day.
The total number of consumers in four sectors [households, industries, agriculture and commerce] was 37,600 million MW in 2020, which has now experienced a 2% rise to reach 38,300 million MW.
According to Kordi, household subscribers witnessed the biggest increase (475,000 new meters) and reached 30.4 million, up 7% compared to 2020 when the figure stood at 30.2 million.
There were about 480,000 electricity meters in the agro sector last year, which has now risen by 3%, meaning 14,000 new subscribers have been added to the key sector.
The number of consumers in the commercial sector has also experienced a rise of 4%. In other words, 202,000 new users have been added, increasing the number of subscribers in the commercial sector to 5.1 million.
Industrial consumers have increased from 1.7 million to 1.9 million.
Tavanir has installed over 1.5 million smart electricity meters in the agriculture, commercial and industrial sectors since 2018.
The installation of each smart meter costs $50 and all heavy-consuming subscribers in the three key sectors will be equipped with high-tech devices by next fall.
Thanks to the new gadgets, consumers are informed about daily use so they could adjust their consumption. Utilities in many developed and developing countries are promoting such meters for economic and environmental reasons, especially to reduce cost and consumption.
Of the total 38 million meters in the country, 20 million are digital, of which over 1.5 million are smart and the rest are old meters that are being replaced gradually.
