A multi million-rand project to build two Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) hardware mass production plants and 13 distribution satellite warehouses would be rolled out across the country, the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (Dtic) said in a statement yesterday.
The project would be administered and managed by Madinda Utilities, a Pretoria-based AMI hardware manufacturer and utilities diagnostics specialist company.
The Dtic said the project would be rolled out in two phases, with the first phase expected to create 1 225 direct jobs, 2 770 indirect jobs in construction as well as 2 775 direct operational jobs with 26 576 indirect jobs.
Managing director of Madinda, Ogi Madinda, said the purpose of the project was to roll out advanced metering infrastructure nationally.
The system includes meters at the customer site, communication networks between the consumer and their distributor, such as an electric, or water utility/distributor, and data reception and management systems that make the information available to both consumers and suppliers.
He said the system would allow consumers to receive real-time energy pricing and offers from the utility to manage their meter. This would enable consumers to benefit from lower bills, while utilities benefit from a stable load on the grid and less need to invest in expensive new capacity.
He said that ultimately it would prevent outages, massive revenue collection losses and excessive load shedding with the following long-term benefits: utilities diagnostics integrity, distribution assets security and longevity, revenue collection protection and enhancement, increase in operational efficiency and performance, enhancement of customer service, demand response, demand-side management including outage detection and service restoration, enablement of customer engagement as well as reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
According to Madinda, the project had already been approved for grant funding from COP24's Sustainable Development Goals to the value of more than $126 million (R2.2 billion).
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