New generation 15-minute electricity meters installation delayed to 2035
While the deadline for installing state-of-the-art electricity meters as required by an EU directive has been put back five years, there is no need to rush, stakeholders say.
The electricity meters enable the tracking of exchange prices in 15-minute increments, and can be read remotely.
So far, around 110,000 consumers have received the new meters, but the government has put the original deadline back for full nationwide coverage by five years, to 2035.
Part of the rationale is to wave on wastage, given key customers who most need the 15-minute meters already have them.
Elektrilevi CEO Mihkel Härm said that since Estonia only moved to digital remote-reading meters a decade, it makes sense to keep these in operation until the end of their service life.
"All large electricity consumers and all electricity producers in Estonia already have meters that measure electricity with 15-minute accuracy," Härm said. "This is also a very positive effect of the government's decision: Elektrilevi has more than 700,000 meters, of which 110,000 already read in 15-minute intervals, but the rest do not actually have a real need for this yet."
Postponing the final deadline will help save costs, Karin Maria Lehtmets, head of the energy markets division at the climate ministry, added.
"It is not rational to rush here, as all of this cost ultimately goes into network fees," Lehtmets said. "If we move forward on a somewhat more sensible timetable, it would allow the €100-million investment to be spread over a longer period, reduces pressure on network charges, and saves consumers €5.4 million."
Estonia is in any case among the front runners in implementing the EU directive, Lehtmets added. Elsewhere in Europe, there are some member states where analog meters are still in use, with readings are submitted only once a year leave alone every 15 minutes.
At the same time, while replacing meters that reach the end of their service life is an ongoing process, fraudsters have started to exploit this changeover, Härm noted.
This means customers must be vigilant, he added.
"Elektrilevi replaces meters on a daily basis, and if an Elektrilevi electrician comes to replace a meter, they will never ask the customer for money or for a PIN code," Härm said.
Kalvi Nõu, head of energy trading at fuel conglomerate Alexela, said larger consumers monitor electricity prices constantly, also adding there is no urgency for domestic customers to replace their meters, particularly if they are on a fixed-price contract.
"For those who currently have fixed-price contracts, nothing changes at all. For customers on market-price contracts, there is essentially only a small difference in whether they can slightly optimize their consumption within an hour in 15-minute increments, but the substantive difference is very, very minimal," Nõu said.
The EU directive states electricity meters which currently measure consumption on an hourly basis must be replaced with meters that record usage in 15-minute intervals. The rationale is this would render consumption management more precise, especially since the Nord Pool electricity exchange switched to 15-minute increments last year.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Mari Peegel
Source: 'Aktuaalne kaamera'
