Special electricity tariffs for heating, the ability to pre-purchase energy from consumers at a discount and automatic fault management are some of the new features that will be provided to consumers by the smart electricity meters that are gradually being installed in the grid.

According to the cost-benefit study for the installation of the meters prepared by DEDDIE, smart meters allow the provision of services differentiated charges B.C. for heating and/or for electric vehicles. Thus, in addition to multi-zone tariffs (ie different charges over the course of 24 hours, higher in peak hours and lower in off-peak hours), smart meters will simultaneously be able to apply different tariffs depending on usageas long as the charging or heating device is connected to a separate supply line.

Thus, the consumer will be able to be paid if they turn off energy-consuming devices during periods of high demand, participating in the so-called demand response market.

A second possibility is the energy pre-purchase: the consumer will be able to pre-purchase e.g. 1000 kilowatt-hours with a discount from his supplier (similarly as mobile phone users pre-purchase time and data with prepaid cards). A prerequisite, of course, is to develop in Greece such commercial programs that are already implemented in many European countries.

Also in case of interruption the smart meter will send a signal before “turning off”. (the so-called last gasp) in the network automatically informing the Administrator about the failure. If there are multiple signals from the same area the Manager will know in real time if the event is local or more general as well as the exact extent of the damage to initiate the restoration. When the power is restored, the meter will also send a signal (“first breath”) that the fault has been repaired.

These services are in addition to smart meter features that help identify and reduce power theft as well as the ability to apply multi-zone pricing which can also lead to energy and money savings for consumers as they limit power consumption during peak hours when energy it is more expensive.

For example, in the afternoon hours when the production of the photovoltaics disappears while the demand e.g. for heating or air conditioning I am high.

What is a “smart boiler”

Related to heating is the “smart boiler” service.

At times when demand is limited and prices are low (even zero or negative, as has happened in EU markets) the smart meter can automatically command the boiler to start up in order to to heat water at a low or even negative cost. That is, in extreme cases, the consumer will be paid by the market to consume energy – which otherwise would have been rejected by the grid – and correspondingly to limit the consumption of electricity for heating water at times when demand is high.

The process of installing smart meters has started, with a completion horizon of 2030. The tender for the supply of 7.1 million is underway. meters that will replace all the conventional electricity consumption meters in the low voltage, budget 1.16 billion. Euro. According to the calculations of DEDDIE, despite the expenditure required for the completion of the project, consumers will have a benefit estimated at 1.1 – 1.6 billion euros in total, mainly due to the reduction of electricity theft, transformer theft, operating costs of the DEDDIE (e.g. to identify faults, interruptions – reconnections that will be done remotely, etc.) and the shift of the load to non-peak hours cutting edge.