Public complaints against incorrect power bills will end soon, as 200,000 meters will be replaced with smart ones by 2020 in UAE.

Recently, the Federal Electricity and Water Authority (FEWA), has replaced 39,000 mechanical meters with smart ones in the northern emirates this year so far.

“Technicians have so far replaced 39,854 mechanical meters, some of which were having technical problems due to water leaks, with new ones in six residential areas in the norther emirates,” said Mohammed Saleh, director general of Fewa.

These are the first of the targeted 200,000 old meters to be replaced with new ones across the northern emirates by the year 2020, he added. “The new smart meters have been tested for some time, and not a single reading error was reported.”

The smart meters, operated by the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system, takes the exact reading of consumption in an instant way, Saleh said. “This way there is no room for human errors, as the meter reading is distantly done in an electronic and precise way.”

Elaborating, Saleh said they have already replaced 1,200 mechanical water and electricity meters with smart ones in Ajman. “The new meters, fitted in residential buildings and villas in Ajman, have been connected with unified ultra-sonic electronic system of all the power stations across the northern emirates.”

The smart meters installed will be put on trial for six months, he added. “These meters are part of FEWA’s strategic plan to replace all the old mechanical meters and thus put an end to customers’ complaints against high bills.”

Indicating, he said they received many complaints against incorrect consumption readings. “These were mostly blamed on technical defaults in the old meters due to water leaks.”

However, some of the old meters proved to have been reading below the actual consumption, and some customers were over consuming water and electricity, Saleh said.

“The consumption of one of our customers was only 200 gallons of water per month, but astonishingly the reading jumps up high to over 2,000 gallons of water in one month after the new smart meter is installed.”