IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE SMART METERING SYSTEMS WITHOUT INCREASING TARIFFS?

Participants of the “National Workshop on Tariff Regulation in 2019 and the goals of regulators for 2020" tried to find the answer to this question during a discussion on 15 October 2019

Deputy Head of FAS Department for Regulating the Electric Power Industry, Sergey Dudkin gave a report on “Transfer of the obligation to provide commercial metering of electric power (capacity) to providers of last resort and network companies. Smart metering systems ".

He explained metering of electric power costs related to the obligations for installment, operation and replacement of smart metering systems (meters) when setting the tariffs for the services of electric power transmission.

For instance, the expenses that fall into capital investments are metered in accord with an approved corporate investment programme. In the current long-term regulatory period, the costs that are not part of capital investments are included in the necessary gross revenue in addition to operational costs, and from the new long-term regulatory period – as operational costs.

The discussion participants also put forward their proposals and comments on distributing the costs incurred by power suppliers in the course of implementing smart metering systems.

According to Head of FAS Department for Regulating the Electric Power Industry, Dmitry Vasiliev, it is important to remember that smart metering systems are implemented as part of digitalizing the entire electric power industry. This project requires collaboration between market participants and regulators.

He said: "It is important to find a balance between the economic interests of consumers and regulated entities since any modernization can require additional costs”.

Answering the main question of the session - “Implementing smart metering systems without increasing tariffs. True or false?”, Dmitry Vasiliev emphasized the need to set the minimum requirements to metering data.

"We expect that the programme for implementing smart metering systems will not increase tariffs of resource suppliers for 2020", concluded Dmitry Vasiliev.