It started with pay-as-you-go mobile phone lines, I believe, and seems to have caught on to domestic electric power. Here in Sudan, every household has an electric meter, just like any other country. Except that it doesn't just show how much power is consumed, but rather how much credit you still have left, before your electric power is cut off.
The way it works is that you go to the electricity place with your meter serial number, go to the lady behind the window and hand her your meter number and some money (however much you want loaded onto your meter). Electricity costs roughly US$ 0.15 per kilowatt hour. The lady will then hand you a receipt with a 16 digit code, which you just type into the keypad on the meter. Your credit will be automatically entered. Now you can enjoy air conditioning and hot water!
What's amazing about prepaid electricity (besides the fact of being an extremely efficient way of collecting electicity bills) is that it gives the user an unprecidented awareness of electricity consumption. I can tell you exactly how much my fridge consumes (about .12 kw/h) or how much my a/c consumes (2.30 kw/h) or even my water heater (1.7 kw/h). And I also know that light bulbs (especially the new power saving ones) consume next to nothing. So it's true what they claim.
Maybe prepay is the way!
7 comments:
"Wisam" box! Ohhh, how cute!!!
Next thing you'll have installed will be an "ant eating" box...It counts how many you devour a day. It includes the protein, calcium and magnesium doses you are getting for each unit eaten, the price of each in €, $ and yen. It also shows how many more ants you still can eat on your daily Blueberry cereal credit...
Electronics! Go beat them!
Wissam did I tell you I love you, if not, yes I love you,
by the way how do you know from prepaid how much your fridge is consuming ?
love
rafal
Very nice posting Wissam, I've never heard before about this prepaid power.... but indeed it's an interesting idea, to improve everyone's awareness as you say. Cheers! Ali-sson.
this is not an uncommon way of charging for power. in the UK they used to do this with lower income people. i have also come across this system in mexico and nicaragua, for different reasons though. a big problem there is people diverting power for their personal stuff. so instead of just cutting all off inflicting economic punishment, they ensure that everyone has power always and the few that pinch it simply get legally punished. water, gas, electricity, telecoms, internet, software... just commodities.
ak
Ana - that's a great idea. Sounds like you just described the new PDA/mobile phone capabilities. The hardware is pretty much there, just need someone to develop the software.
Rafal - I love you too. On the power meter, the screen shows you how many KwH you still have to your credit. If you type in #1# the screen will show you the current consumption. So if you switch off all your appliances but one, you will know how much it consumes. If you type in #2# you get your consumption from the beginning of the month. If you type in #4# you get the meter's serial number. I haven't discovered the other codes yet.
W.
oh yeah, the reason my name is written below my meter is because when they installed the generator, they reconnected the meters in reverse. I only found out at 11PM that night, since the other flat's credit was already quite low (it's vacant). I spent that night without power, thus without a/c, which is not a pleasant experience in 32 degrees heat at night. I made a pretty big deal of it that night, and when they fixed the problem they made sure my meter was clearly marked! (they also misspelled my name!! but I let that one go)
Fratellino,
How was Cairo? You should have blogged about that. Parents told me that you were there for business for a few days.
Tell us tell us!
Birra
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