Consumers will soon have access to real-time information on their power usage, pattern and disruptions – thanks to the smart meter.

Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) plans to deploy its Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) to 8.5 million customers in the country.

Its president/CEO Datuk Seri Azman Mohd said the initiative was part of the company’s goal to achieve energy sustainability and security. “We will expand the AMI on a larger scale in the near future,” he said at the Association of Electricity Supply Industry of East Asia and the Western Pacific (AESIEAP) Chief Executive Officer Conference held in Thailand on Monday.

A pilot project launched in Malacca in October 2014 in which 1,000 smart meters were introduced was deemed successful.

The AMI system, which has been installed in about 180 million homes around the world, promises to offer flexible tariffs and prevent power theft. It will allow the utility company to automatically disconnect supply if bills are defaulted and also do away with the need for meter readers to make house visits.

In 2016, TNB announced its plans to deploy its first phase of wide-scale AMI roll-out. About 300,000 houses in the state of Malacca will replace their traditional meter to a smart meter. Soon after Malacca, houses in other states will get their digital meters changed to the smart meters with no payment required, with hopes to complete nation-wide deployment by 2021.

Source: http://www.therakyatpost.com/business/2016/03/28/changeover-to-tnb-smart-meters-starts-next-year/