Ministry of Energy experts answered media questions about modern electricity meters

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- A meeting with the media, bloggers and activists was held at the Ministry of Energy of Uzbekistan to clarify issues that arose about installing modern “smart” electricity meters.

The meeting was attended by the Deputy Minister of Energy of Uzbekistan Sherzod Khodjaev, representatives of the Uzstandard agency, RES, meter manufacturing company JV ElektronXisoblagich.

Most of the questions were devoted to public complaints about the installation and operation of new electric energy metering devices.

Responding to a complaint about the illiterate work of the installers of the meters, the Deputy Minister of Energy of Uzbekistan Sherzod Khodjaev noted that by mid-September, a single short number should be launched, a call center similar to mobile operators. He will record all appeals of the population and respond promptly to them.

Speaking about dissatisfaction with the allegations that the new meters are overestimating electricity consumption by several times, the following was emphasized.

Old metering devices, especially mechanical, induction ones, initially have a higher threshold of sensitivity than modern ones. And given that they worked for 30 years or more, they greatly underestimate the consumption of electricity. The new device captures the entire amount of electricity that passes through it. Meters of the past generation did not record this.

“When creating the meters, an intelligent recognition system for unauthorized electricity consumption was used. If consumers previously had unaccounted connections, the meter will record this. There were two ways. Program the counter to turn off when it detects unauthorized connections or fix this problem and continue to work. We chose the second option,” Khodjaev explained.

He also commented on the widespread complaint that the new meters show one digit, and SMS informing the other.

“I must admit that the existing billing system, put into operation in 2012, has exhausted itself. We set a large-scale task - to launch a new billing system, and now we are actively working on it. The new system will reflect data synchronously with the counter without delays,” Khojaev explained.

He added that experts selectively checked the complaints received on social networks. After explanatory work and a thorough check of the meters, consumer complaints were withdrawn. However, when trying to post a story about it on social networks, consumer messages were blocked.

The Ministry of Energy and other related departments expressed their willingness, together with bloggers, journalists and activists, to check all the complaints of the population with visits to consumers, to shoot this on video and to contribute to the preparation of material in the genre of journalistic investigation.