Mount Kenya Regional Manager Phineas Marete. [Phares Mutembei, Standard]

Kenya Power has launched smart electricity meters in Meru as it seeks to achieve efficiency in service delivery.

Mount Kenya Regional Manager Phineas Marete said the smart meters will record consumption of electricity, voltage levels and other data.

Marete said the meters will enable Kenya Power to monitor the service and do the billing, noting the company will not have to send its workers to do the tasks.

He said in case supply is disconnected, the reconnection will be done automatically once the bill is settled.

“We have installed 300 smart meters for SMEs in Meru and we will put around 400 more. We plan to install them to households too,” said Mr Marete.

Speaking during a sensitisation forum at Makutano, Marete regretted that illegal lines had been installed by some people in a bid to cheat the company out of revenue.

Marete said the illegal connections were the cause of at least one death in Meru and three others in the Mount Kenya region in the last financial area.

He said the company had done well and achieved 54 per cent coverage in Meru.

But he revealed that the Igembe, Tigania and Buuri regions had low coverage.

Marete cautioned people who were creating bypasses to avoid billing.

He said improper connections and tampering with meters were a menace in the region.