Smart meters provide detailed information on consumption in order to reduce electricity bills.

Around 280,000 smart electricity and water metres have been installed by Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) around the country.

Seen to be one of Kahramaa’s most notable projects for digital transformation, the Smart Metering Infrastructure Project aims to install 600,000 advanced digital metres to allow for more precise readings of energy consumption.

While having a smart metre shows a decrease in bills, it cannot decrease usage on its own.

According to the theory, consumers are more likely to cut back if they are aware of their spending and usage. In contrast, if they ignore the smart metre and not pay attention to their usage, the bill can actually go up.

“Teams of engineers and experts supervised the installation and operation of about 41,000 smart electricity metres until the end of November 2022,” the state-owned corporation said in an update.

Around 21,000 smart water metres, according to the report, were set up and used at the same time. In addition, 35,000 conventional water metres were replaced with smart metres, and up to 17,500 old metres were removed and replaced.

The smart metre project is part of Kahramaa’s extensive efforts to adopt the most cutting-edge technology currently in use worldwide in order to advance its operations and boost the effectiveness of its services.

What is a smart metre?

Water management and accurate billing are made possible by smart water metres, which track and communicate water usage from the consumer to the provider. The metres feature an electronic computing unit, or ECU, that make it easier for the metre and the supplier to communicate.

The main advantage of switching to a smart metre is the elimination of the need for manual gas and electricity readings. With a smart metre, all of that information is automatically sent to your supplier, giving them precise readings so you can say good-bye to estimated bills.

In addition, users can also track consumption with the help of the newly-installed metres, furthering the goals of the National Program for Conservation and Energy Efficiency (Tarsheed).

The Smart Metering Infrastructure Project, which provides cutting-edge and dependable infrastructure to support the national economy, is strategically important in Qatar’s transition to smart cities.