BrazilOliver Wyman joins project to install over a million smart meters in Kuwait
Kuwait's Ministry of Electricity and Water has teamed up with Oliver Wyman and local telco Zain on a smart meter project to install more than 1 million meters to homes and offices across the country.
With support from global management firm Oliver Wyman, Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity and Water together local telecommunications operator Zain will set out to install more than a million smart electrical and water meters to homes and office across the country in a bid to enhance customer service while improving utilities maintenance and environmental sustainability.
Altogether, some 800,000 electrical meters and 300,000 water meters are slated for instillation, connecting hundreds of thousands of homes to a vast data network which can monitor national power and water usage in real-time, allowing for better management and distribution of utilities over both the longer-term, and in the immediate present, such as with spikes or emergencies.
In addition, connected customers will be able to better manage their own accounts, with bills payable online and through mobile apps, while also receiving alerts in the event of emergencies or spikes in personal usage – such that an unnoticed leak could potentially be resolved in a more prompt fashion. Meanwhile, connected sensors can improve maintenance monitoring and scheduling.
Run in partnership with Zain and Ericson, the smart meters will transmit data on Zain’s networks to the Ministry, with Ericsson acting as a systems integrator to provide data processing capacity through SAP's HANA in-memory platform. Oliver Wyman, which has previously been instrumental in the transformation of the Kuwaiti bourse, will provide strategy and management advice for the project.
“By partnering with global technology companies, real-time utilities usage and billing will help our customers to save time and enhance our utilities maintenance and sustainability, all in line with Kuwait National Development Plan's smart government goals, ”Meshan Alotaibi, Assistant Undersecretary of Consumer Affairs at the Ministry of Electricity and Water in Kuwait said.
A further factor of the smart meter project will be in the enhanced ability to encourage a reduction in personal consumption, an important issue in the Middle East with high household consumption rates due to the air-conditioning required for a comfortable living environment in an especially hot climate. In the Middle East, residential consumption accounts for over half of all energy usage, compared to less than a third in Western Europe.
One potential strategy for usage reduction is through online ‘gamification’, such as with personal target charts and knowledge testing on potential savings measures. Recently, Fadi Adra, a Partner with PwC’s consulting arm Strategy& in Beirut, lauded a nationwide energy conservation campaign conducted in Egypt, which achieved a significant reduction through a range of public awareness initiatives.
Related: Ecofys leads project for energy-efficient buildings in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon
