In Bern, electricity meters are replaced by smart meters
The federal government stipulates that grid operators must replace conventional electricity meters with so-called "smart meters" by 2027. The company Energie Wasser Bern is now starting to install the digital meters throughout the city of Bern.
One goal of the federal government's Energy Strategy 2050 is to increase energy efficiency by means of intelligent supply networks, so-called "smart grids". By networking and intelligently controlling electricity production, consumption and storage, for example, irregular electricity production from renewable energy sources can be better balanced with electricity demand. Smart grids thus make an important contribution to the optimization of the energy system, to a reliable energy supply and consequently to the implementation of the Energy Strategy 2050 as well as of the energy plan of the city of Bern, as Energie Wasser Bern (EWB) writes.
Not only smart, but also sustainable
An important component of the intelligent networks are "smart meters", digital electricity meters with remote reading, which can send the metering data automatically to the energy suppliers. EWB has already installed smart meters in recent years during regular meter replacements. These would store electricity consumption every 15 minutes and transmit the metering data once a day in encrypted form to the data processing system via the company's own electricity and fiber optic networks. The visual display would make customers aware of the need to optimize their own electricity consumption. In this way, the smart meters would make an important contribution to securing the power supply of the city of Bern and promoting renewable energies, according to the energy service provider.
Valuable experience
The Electricity Supply Ordinance of November 2, 2017, stipulates that all Swiss grid operators must replace conventional electricity meters with smart meters by 2027. For this reason, EWB is now beginning the rollout, the nationwide installation of smart meters, throughout the entire city area. In total, the municipal energy supplier is replacing around 80,000 conventional electricity meters with communication-capable models free of charge. In order to master this demanding task in a technically, logistically and economically efficient manner, an extensive test rollout was carried out in advance, the report concludes.
Source: EWB
