Oman plans to launch Automated Meter Reading (AMR) services, also known as smart metering, for the power sector this year, a report said.

The service will primarily be targeted at large industrial and commercial customers whose electricity consumption exceeds a certain annual limit, Omar al Wahaibi, CEO of Nama Group, the holding company of state-owned procurement, transmission and distribution utilities, was quoted as saying in the Oman Observer report.

“We are leveraging new technology to enhance the customer experience,” Al Wahaibi said.

“We have just started a project to implement Automated Meter Reading for high value customers; these are customers who consume more than 150 megawatt-hours (MWh) per annum,” he added.

CESI Middle East, a subsidiary of technical consulting and engineering company CESI, was last year tasked with planning the rollout of automated meter reading, the report said.

Around 12,000 high value accounts distributed among all five distribution utilities are expected to be brought under the purview of the smart metering project by 2017-end, it added.

A number of international companies are bidding for the contract to supply the smart meters and associated communication devices.

“Automated Meter Reading will hopefully enable us to implement Cost Reflective Tariffs to (High Value) customers. It will also help these customers understand their consumption patterns,” Al Wahaibi said.

Smart metering technology will also enhance the quality and speed of processing of metering data, improve billing accuracy, reduce debtor delays, mitigate losses and ease query-related costs, the report said, citing authorities.