High charges not due to smart meters, Kahramaa clarifies

The Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa) has said the electricity tariff has not changed while clarifying that smart meters are not linked to any kind of increase in the calculation.“The relative increase in the bill for some subscribers may be due to recording accurate actual readings of consumption and the absence of the need to rely on approximate estimates,” Kahramaa tweeted.Kahramaa has so far informed the subscribers that the use of smart meters will not cause any rise in bills for the monthly consumption. “The smart meters are characterised by high accuracy and efficiency, as they, in turn, send the required information about consumption automatically through the network without the need for anyone to read it manually,” Kahramaa said.Kahramaa started implementation of the smart meter system and their communication network as part of comprehensive digital transformation in line with the objectives of Qatar National Vision 2030.The project's strategic plan aims to install 600,000 smart meters powered by the Internet of Things (IoT) technology, in co-operation with Vodafone in terms of securing the network necessary for the system's operation and in co-ordination with Siemens to provide the infrastructure that includes the latest technologies, devices and advanced software used to connect and integrate intelligent control systems with the basic system for remote billing, monitoring and instant reading throughout Qatar.