Eng. Felchesmi J. Mramba, Head of Marketing Division,Tanesco, Tanzania

IMPACT OF AMR SYSTEM ON REVENUE COLLECTION AND LOSS REDUCTION.

TANESCO Case Study,

Slides Layout• Background• Why Going AMR?

– Increasing Revenue?– Curbing Energy Theft?

• Adoption of AMR Meters in TANESCO• Key Realized Benefits• Impact on Sales/Revenue• Impact on Energy Losses• Challenges in Implementing AMR Solution• Concluding Remarks

Background Information• TANESCO stands for Tanzania Electric Supply

Company Limited• It is a vertically integrated Power utility supplying

Electricity to Tanzania mainland and bulk supply to Zanzibar

• Total number of customers up to December 2010 was 870,000

• The Company decided in 2007 to introduce AMR metering system in order to deal with two major issues:– Revenue Collection– Reduce Energy Theft and therefore NTL Losses

Why Going AMR?

1. To Increase Revenue.

• Due to high losses and other issues associated with metering

and billing system, it was projected that by improving on

these two areas TANESCO Revenue could improve by up to

10%

• This prompted a thorough look at various options that could

improve on meter reading and billing.

• Out of various options AMR metering was opted.

Why Going AMR?

2. To curb Energy theft thus reduce NTL.

• By December 2006, TANESCO overall losses figure was 26%.

• This was contributed mainly by electricity theft by Large

Power Users consuming about 60% of all generated power

• Despite various Revenue Protection efforts, still our losses

were high.

• Customers were inventing new methods of meter tampering

each day as may be seen in the photos below:

Meter Bypassed on all phases

Revenue loss calculated = USD 361,297.20 for 12 Months

(LARGE POWER USER)

7

Signal wire for Red Phase Current Circuit Opened

Terminals of Meter’s Internal CTs

A

B

C

Terminals ‘B’ and ‘C’ re-soldered to introduce more impedance. This increased the effective CT Ratio

Resistors found soldered in series with meter’s internal CTs to ‘increase’ the CT Ratio and reduce energy registration

A Large Power User

Energy Theft Examples LPUsThe Terminals of the CT/VT (Metering Unit) Found Bridged by Resistors

Installing LV, CT-Operated AMR Meters inside a Special Metering Cabinets – Goal, To restrict access

However, some customer tampers with padlocks and tampers with meters

Adoption of AMR System in TANZANIA

TANESCO decided to adopt the AMR metering system in 2007.

A Pilot Project involving 100 Large Power Users was conducted from 2007 to 2008 to determine suitability of the technology.

Roll-out of the AMR SystemFollowing success of the Pilot Project, the Company decided in 2009 to roll out AMR Meters to cover all remaining Large Power Users totaling 2,000 and 8,000 whole-current three-phase metered customers. The exercise started in 2010 and expected to be completed in mid 2011

Key Benefits of The AMR system in TANZANIA

Remote disconnection. This is one of the key

features of the AMR system that helps to improve

revenue collection. Through this feature all non

paying customers are remotely disconnected and

reconnected after payment at very minimal costs.

Alarm System whenever Meter Tamper is

attempted. Through the alarms, customers who

attempted to tamper with the meter were

apprehend before causing much loss

Key Benefits Cont…

Improvement in Quality of Service ; temporary breakdowns can be detected by the AMR System and quickly attended by Emergence Crews even if no one is at home to report the break down.

Significant reduction on the meter reading costs . All medium customers meters are now read remotely by the AMR system thus reducing the costs of meter reading by contractors.

Impact Of AMR System on Energy Sales – 2006 Vs 2010

Total Units Sold

(kWh)

Total Units Sold(kWh) Increase

2006(No AMR)

2010(WITH AMR ) (%)

T2383,376,945 467,296,342

22%

T3 834,306,239 1,140,734,688 36%

Av. Total 1,217,683,184 1,608,031,030 32%

Units/Customer780,566 846,332

8.4%

Before AMR

Year 2006

After AMR

Year 2010

Total Energy

Theft Cases62 12

Energy Theft Cases DROPPED from 62 cases involving LPUs in 2006 to 12 cases only in 2010

Overall Losses dropped from 26% in 2006 to 20% by the end of December 2010.

Major contributing Factor is AMR Metering System.

Why?: Several customers who tried to tamper were caught following the alarms sent by the system. Information spread to others so they are scared to attempt!

Impact of AMR Meters on Losses

CUSTOMERS DISCONNECTED & RECCONECTED FOR NINE (9) REGIONS UP TO FEBRUARY 2011

S/N REGIONCustomers

DisconnectedCustomers

ReconnectedOS/Balance

Amount Paid(Collection)

Balance

1 TEMEKE 63 44 58,415,126.95 21,730,732.8 36,684,394.19

2 MOROGORO 1 1 52,958,260.00 52,958,260.00 -

3 K’NJARO 57 3719,890,499.24 12,207,661.87

7,682,837.37

4 ARUSHA 13 115,447,692.83 7,796,175.76

7,651,517.07

5 TANGA 34 428,883,060.41

3,580,840.00 25,302,220.41

6 ILALA 140 62234,136,301.45 68,933,844.86

165,202,456.59

7 COAST 41 9 60,873,263.31 8,809,238.79 52,064,024.52

8 KNORTH 74 14106,551,749.74 47,400,943.08

59,150,806.66

9 IRINGA 1 1 637,405.30 491,740.00 145,665.30

TOTAL 425 173585,710,051.08 223,909,437.12

361,800,613.96

Impact of AMR on Collection of Arrears for Medium Power Users

Disconnection Cost ≈ USD22.5

1. It is expensive to finance the projects thus complete roll-out is a long term process.

2. AMR Metering systems also requires adequate training to Installation Teams, Management Units as well as Revenue Protection Teams otherwise the technology itself may create unexpected surprises

3. To be able to manage a smart system, people need to be smart! Attitude change is inevitable! But people will definately resist the change!

Challenges on Implementation of AMR Metering Solution

CONCLUDING REMARKS1. The AMR System has proved the following advantages: -

- It is a good tool for controlling Energy theft thus reducing losses and increasing revenues.

- It is also a good tool for areas collection- With AMR System power breakdowns can be detected

and attended early thus improving quality of service, - Reduces billing costs as data is captured and

processed automatically.

2. Regardless of high initial investment costs, the AMR project is a sustainable. However, Smart System NEEDS Smart People, thus Proper Management is vital for AMR benefits to be fully realized.

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