Publication: Can Utilities Realize the Benefits of Advanced Metering Infrastructure?: Lessons from the World Bank’s Portfolio
Loading...
Date
2016-07
ISSN
Published
2016-07
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) provides significant benefits to utilities around the world. Although it is entering the mainstream, technical concerns, policy challenges, capacity, and will in the Bank’s client countries hinder wider adoption. Starting out with smaller AMI deployments aimed at addressing revenue constraints seems to offer the best chance of success at utilities supported by Bank financed projects.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Nangia, Varun; Oguah, Samuel; Gaba, Kwawu. 2016. Can Utilities Realize the Benefits of Advanced Metering Infrastructure?: Lessons from the World Bank’s Portfolio. Live Wire;No. 2016/66. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24716 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Publication Decarbonizing Ammonia and Nitrogen Fertilizers with Clean Hydrogen(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-12)Synthetic fertilizers are essential to sustaining the world’s population, but their production is responsible for 1.8–2.4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Clean hydrogen holds growing potential (amid falling costs) to decarbonize fertilizer production. Hydrogen produces synthetic ammonia, a building block of most fertilizers. With the fertilizer market as a reliable off-taker, this shift could support the overall expansion of clean hydrogen, even as it boosts global food security. However, this transition may require adjustments, including changes in fertilizer types and modifications to existing subsidy schemes.Publication Mini Grids for Underserved Main Grid Customers(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-06-21)Can mini grids help to solve the problem of poorly served main grid connected communities A mini grid is an electricity generation and distribution network that supplies electricity to a localized group of customers. Mini grids can be isolated from or connected to the main grid. To date, most mini grids in Sub-Saharan Africa have been built in electrically isolated rural villages not connected to the main grid. Based on broad experience working with mini grid programs in more than 20 low- and middle-income countries and five detailed case studies, the authors offer observations and recommendations about mini grids in general and a new type known as “undergrid mini grids” being used in Nigeria and India to serve poorly served communities.Publication Mobilizing Commercial Financing to Scale Up Energy Efficiency in the Public Sector(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-22)Scaling up energy efficiency is critical to the energy transition—and the public sector is a good place to start. Programs in public buildings, in particular, can introduce new models and thus help shape markets. Given the limits of public financing against huge investment needs, countries must unlock commercial financing. The first steps are to adopt international best practices and select financing mechanisms suited to local policy and regulatory frameworks, public agency characteristics, implementation barriers, and the maturity of financial markets.Publication Using Biomass or Green Ammonia to Replace Coal in Existing Thermal Power Plants(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-06-06)Finding fuel sources to replace coal in power plants is crucial in the march toward decarbonization. Biomass and ammonia are two options offering significant potential. Both can be used with coal or alone in newly constructed facilities or in modified power plants. Relatively new power plants are good candidates for modification. While work is underway demonstrating the feasibility of each material, there are logistical challenges to address, particularly in the case of ammonia.Publication Net Zero Energy by 2060(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-06-07)In the long term, both energy security and decarbonization in the region will depend on substantial increases in national climate ambitions. Achieving those increases will depend, in turn, on equally substantial increases in investment in low-carbon technologies, accompanied by timely policies and regulatory measures. The World Bank has developed a whole-energy-system model, data driven, technology rich, and bottom-up, to project optimal least-cost pathways for Europe and Central Asia to achieve a net zero energy target by 2060. This Live Wire is based on a report published in March 2024 (World Bank and ESMAP 2024).
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Smartening the Grid in Developing Countries(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-07)Since fiscal year 2010 the World Bank has supported 20 smart grid projects in 19 countries and all six Bank regions. Valued at 960 million dollars - a quarter of all Bank support for transmission and distribution during the period — the projects have focused on advanced metering, distribution automation, and supervisory control and data acquisition for energy and distribution management systems. Some of these projects are still under implementation, but task teams are learning valuable lessons about how to implement smart grid projects most effectively.Publication Distribution Automation(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-07)The control systems of today’s smart power-distribution grids have evolved significantly. Such systems improve system reliability by reducing the frequency and duration of outages. They also optimize asset utilization and increase power quality. But the scale of automation and the ultimate configuration of the system need to be considered carefully with each client. The decision to proceed must be based on a sound economic evaluation; it cannot simply echo the mantra of automation.Publication Managing the Grids of the Future in Developing Countries(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-07)SCADA/EMS and SCADA/DMS systems ensure that power grids are efficient, resilient, and able to adapt to changes in generation, transmission, and distribution. Advancing technology is making SCADA systems more capable and enabling new monitoring and management applications. World Bank support for such systems is crucial to ensuring the sustainable long-term growth of power networks in developing countries. Meanwhile, the potential exists to significantly enhance grid management in many cases by activating already installed equipment.Publication Survey of International Experience in Advanced Metering Infrastructure and its Implementation(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-11-30)This report packages international know-how around major steps and key questions to be faced by South Asian utilities in the design and deployment of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). The type of data analytics generated by AMI can lead to a transformation of utilities, and a new generation of demand-side and supply-side efficiency measures, policies, and regulations. In addition, greater communication capabilities between the power sector and its consumers can create stronger customer provider relationships, greater understanding of needs and capabilities, and open pathways to innovation. This report covers international best practices for the end-to-end deployment of an AMI system including such areas as main functions, procurement options, cost recovery models, and the organizational or functional changes needed to implement AMI-enabled business processes. For this report, the study team surveyed a variety of international utilities, including several early adopters of AMI, which collectively represent a notable portion of smart meters deployed globally today, and these are documented in Section 4 under case studies.Publication Applications of Advanced Metering Infrastructure in Electricity Distribution(Washington, DC, 2011)In the second half of the 1980s, several electricity companies in developed countries incorporated the automation of the reads of the consumption meters installed in their customers' premises. Adoption of that approach was driven in all the cases by the need to lower the significant costs of in-site reading, reflecting high labor costs in rich countries. There are several AMI options potentially viable for each of the automated meter reading (AMI) applications, covering a wide range in terms of technical and functional specifications of hardware and software. However, the technical and economic feasibility of a specific option crucially depends on the current operational and financial performance of the involved utilities, as well as on other key characteristics (institutional, regulatory, development of communications infrastructure) of the environment in which they operate. It is very clear that, in AMI, one size does not fit all. The applicability and options for applying AMI or smart meters technology to a variety of customer management issues commonly found in public service utilities, in particular in electricity distribution companies, are described and analyzed in this report.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Philippines Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)Climate change poses major risks for development in the Philippines. Climate shocks, whether in the form of extreme weather events or slow-onset trends, will hamper economic activities, damage infrastructure, and induce deep social disruptions. Adaptation to the risks of climate change, including both extreme events and slow-onset problems, is thus critical for the Philippines. Policy inaction would impose substantial economic and human costs, especially for the poor. Adaptation cannot eliminate the costs of climate change, but it can substantially reduce them. Many adaptation responses also contribute to mitigation; conversely, many mitigation measures generate local co-benefits, such as reduced air pollution. Although the Philippines is a relatively low emitter of greenhouse gas (GHG), it can contribute to global mitigation efforts through an energy transition, including a shift away from coal. The investment costs of such adaptation measures and an energy transition are substantial but not out of reach. The Philippines Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) comprehensively analyzes how climate change will affect the country's ability to meet its development goals and pursue green, resilient, and inclusive development. The CCDR helps identify opportunities for climate action by both the public and private sectors and prioritizes the most urgent development challenges impacted by climate change in the Philippines.Publication Lao PDR Forest Note(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06-05)Natural capital in Lao PDR is a major source of wealth for the country and becomes even more strategic in times of economic stress. While forest products directly benefit vulnerable rural communities, ecosystem services from forests support key economic sectors such as energy, agriculture, industry, and tourism. Forests and downstream industries also offer important job and livelihood opportunities in rural areas in Lao PDR that can be expanded. This country forest note provides an upstream analysis of the status of forests as well as investments and policies relevant to the forest sector in the Lao People’s Demographic Republic. The analysis looks at forests in a programmatic and cross-sectoral manner to strategically position the World Bank Group to support the country in delivering on forest-relevant interventions.Publication Managing Pesticides for Greener Growth in Lao PDR(World Bank, Vientiane, 2021-03-26)Sound pesticides management and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in particular are widely acknowledged as important mechanisms to mitigate pre- and post-harvest losses and to achieve sustainable agricultural intensification. The recent proliferation of agricultural concessions, contract farming arrangements, subsidies and other mechanisms in the country to stimulate production also mean a facilitated access to inputs that must be regulated. Preserving Lao PDR’s rich biodiversity is not only a conservation goal in itself but also contributes to food security, poverty reduction and development. Sound pesticides management contributes to agricultural competitiveness and trade. Trade in agricultural products, and in particular market access, is affected by the presence of pests in a traded consignment or the presence of excessive pesticide residues in food products that attract the application of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures by trading partners. The Lao PDR Government has made strides in controlling banned, unregistered and illegally imported pesticides in the last ten years.Publication Energy Sector Decarbonization in Vietnam(Washington, DC, 2022-06)Vietnam has made remarkable economic progress over the past 30 years; however, growth was supported by increasing reliance on coal-based energy. The energy sector would continue the expansion of coal-based energy with the significant increase in the installed capacity of coal power plants under previous plans. Vietnam has committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 and gradually phasing out the use of coal for power generation. Selecting lower carbon pathways for the future growth of the energy sector requires the study of interdependencies of the power system through a robust analytical approach. The choice of decarbonization scenario should be based on a careful review of implications and opportunities at the sector level as well as more broadly at the level of the economy. Energy sector decarbonization would require the development of ‘just transition’ oriented policies and regulations to support the people, communities, and businesses. World Bank Group stands ready to provide comprehensive support for designing and implementing a low-carbon future for the energy sector.Publication Urban Transport in Yangon(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020)Yangon is the largest city and main economic powerhouse in Myanmar. The increased urbanization and economic activity in Yangon in the past decade may be potentially hampered by higher motorization and its negative impacts, particularly for the poor, including longer travel times to jobs and services, and increasing traffic-related injuries and fatalities and pollutant emissions. The report calls for urgent actions to seize the window of opportunity brought by a growing economy and put forward actionable, simple, and affordable strategies aiming to provide efficient, equitable, clean, and safe mobility for the population in two major cities in Myanmar. This overview note presents highlights of the report for Yangon. It aims to support policy discussions on how to improve the urban transport sector performance and match with adequate funding and financing options suited to the bold vision for Yangon.