Cape Town – Smart metering, which is “closer than you think”, will mean that you could soon log on to the internet and switch your geyser off, whether you are on holiday in Palm Springs or at your office downtown.
Speaking on the sidelines of Africa Utility Week at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on Tuesday, Tony Smallwood, Vodacom’s executive head for Internet of Things, told the African News Agency: “One of the solutions we are working on with a metro is a unit that goes into a distribution board which will allow you to remotely switch on and off certain circuits of your board using your mobile phone.”
In addition to helping the forgetful manage their homes and their bills, smart metering for utilities will improve efficiency and reduce wastage and theft.
“Meters today require someone physically to go and read the meter whereas the smart meter will transmit usage,” Smallwood said.
“Instead of having estimated bill you will have actual billing on a regular basis.”
Sensors will also feed data back to the municipality to be used either for preventative action or speedy repair when problems develop. Loads of water being lost to a leaky pipe or burst mains that is out of sight will be a thing of the past.
Smallwood said burst geysers might even be a thing of the past because a sensor could warn a homeowner that remedial action was required before the geyser burst causing all kinds of damage to ceilings, carpets, light fittings, fans, private moments, dignity and etc.
Pylons could also be fitted with sensors, which will alert a control room to any tampering, thus reducing theft for scrap metal, which sometimes is so bad it leads to pylons falling over.
The data and analytics gathered would also allow better usage of infrastructure and resources.
In time, Smallwood added, there would also be time-of-use tariffing, where a unit of power was priced according to the time of day.
Distributors of power, such as municipalities, already pay for power at different rates for different times of day, but the technology is not yet in place for the varied pricing to be passed on to the consumer.
This development would allow the price-conscious to save money by running energy-hungry appliances such as washing machines at specific times of day or night.
All of these innovations are just around the corner, according to Smallwood, and would lead to better use, management and costing of all our resources.
African News Agency