Cost Benefit Analysis of Smart Metering

Traditionally electricity is generated near bulk storage of a resource and then transmitted to far flung areas through long and lengthy transmission lines. Thisenergy in the next phase is distributed to consumers. A fraction of electric energy lost in reaching customer’s premises is known as T&D or technical losses. Another fraction of energy lost due to electricity theft by consumers and due to errors in calculation by utility operators.These lossesare also known as commercial, non-technical and administrative losses. In Pakistan and other third world countries an enormous amount of energy is lost due to electricity theft. The portion of energy lost as unpaid back to utility causes a huge economic loss to utilities and hence the whole energy sector. The traditional electromechanical energy meter are not sufficient enough to sense and control electricity theft. The deployment of Advanced Metering infrastructure is inevitable to mitigate and control losses due to theft and it also provide exact ratio of energy used and lost.