My experience with The World Bank Mongolia Second Energy Sector Project and smart meters

When I joined the World Bank two years ago, most of the projects I supported were in the middle of implementation or even at the completion stage. However, two projects were in pipeline, including Second Energy Sector Project (ESP II). 

June 2^nd of 2016 I got the chance to go to on a field trip to Erdenet city on ESP II Project to observe the Erdenet-Bulgan Electricity Distribution Network (EBEDN) and I passed, on the way, by Darkhan-Selenge electricity Distribution Network  with Peter Johansen  (Senior Energy Specialist, Task Team Leader), Yun Wu (Energy Specialist), Morgan Bazilian Lead Energy Specialist), Bernard Baratz (Environmental Safeguard Consultant), Reisha Jones (Social Safeguard Consultant), Chrisantha Ratnayake (Technical Consultant) and several people from the Study Team that the Ministry of Energy had appointed to help with the project mission team. Although the main goal of the field trip was to get acquainted with EBEDN, meet relevant officials and familiarize with the substations and the project area, the DSEDN caught my interest more with its smart meters.

  Let me give a very brief description of the Energy Sector Project II. The Project will include three components:

Component 1. Rehabilitation of Distribution Networks: 1.1 Upgrading Expansion of Baganuur-Southeastern Region Electricity Distribution Network(BSEDN), 1.2 Upgrade and Expansion of Erdenet-Bulgan Electricity Distribution Network (EBEDN) 1.3. Rehabilitation of switchgears in National Power Transmission Grid(NPTG); Component 2. Solar Power Plant will finance construction of a 10MW solar PV power plant in the Western Energy System; and Component 3. Capacity Building will cover project management, TA and trainings.

The field trip started early in the morning on the third of June. The distance from Ulaanbaatar to Erdenet is around 400 km.  As I have mentioned before, we bypassed Darkhan city. Although, the component to upgrade and expand DSEDN had been dropped, the team wanted to see the SMART meters in Darkhan and to be introduced to its outcomes.  DSEDN is a private company that had installed 11,913 smart meters at Darkhan city. This included all residents living in apartments and 25% of ger district.  “By switching from regular meters to smart meters Darkhan city had reduced Power loss from 21.34% to 5.52% and receivable from 102.9 million to 46.4 million tugriks”, said Mr. Erdenebat, Head of Engineering Department of DSEDN. As every Mongolian knows that power distribution loss is a big issue for every distribution company, smart meters made “Revolution” to this problem in Darkhan city.   Smart meters are connected to the Dispatch Monitoring System, where relevant officials can receive the most updated (updates every 1 sec) information of meters, including voltage, sub-stations load, parameter, indicators, etc. They enable two-way communication between the meter and the central system and can gather data for remote reporting. These smart meters have self-security systems that shuts down the meters when an external object is introduced, has ability to cut-off the load if it exceeds a pre-determined value and disconnect-reconnect remotely. These features thwart thieves trying to steal electricity by tampering with meters.

 

The main goal of passing by Darkhan city was to see how the smart meters work and to be introduced to the outcomes of it. Darkhan  is successfully running smart meters and, since it is managed by a private company, development actions had been taken into actions faster than state-owned companies. Since ESP II project component includes connecting 65,000 households to the smart meters, learning firsthand about the smart meters was very helpful.

 

After passing by DSEDN the team headed to Erdenet-Bulgan Electricity Distribution Network, where we had meetings with key engineers and the Director of EBEDN. EBEDN is conducting electricity distribution and supply activities for 65,400 customers of 114 soum centers of the 11 aimags, using 577 substations and 5523.6 km electricity networks. Unlike DSEDN, EBEDN is a public company where the Ministry of Energy owns 70% and the Ministry of Finance 30%.

 

In Erdenet, we were introduced to EBEDN’s operations, challenges and issues. We also observed a few substations and the land where the new substation will be built by the project.

 

Having no knowledge of the energy sector at all, getting to know the project by reading project documents was impossible. However, thanks to the energy team and the patient study team (I have been constantly asking questions), I got quite a good understanding of the overall energy sector.