Techno Economic Analysis of LPWAN Smart Meter Project to Escalate Company Performance & Fairness Concern (Case Study: PT PGN, Tbk)

Abstract

The government's strategic program, gas network for households (Jargas), aims to connect 4.7 million households to gas by 2025. This creates new challenges for PT PGN Tbk, because the large number of customers owned contrasts with PGN's revenue from household customers. There are numerous operational issues, such as a high error rate, a high receivables rate, etc. PGN must find a way to make household operations more efficient by utilizing new technology in order to improve company performance and fairness. In this study, we evaluate various smart meter technologies, such as prepaid smart meters, wired communication smart meters (fiber optic connection), and wireless smart meters as well as focus on LPWAN smart meters. The LPWAN communication modes we studied included Lora WAN, NB IoT and Sigfox. We evaluate the best smart meter technology based on technical & economic evaluation and cost-benefit analysis. Lora WAN provides the most appropriate cost benefit among LPWAN communications, based on an economic evaluation that estimates recovery from uncollectible at 100%, Lora WAN smart meters outperform conventional meters in terms of calculating total cost of ownership in year 7. PGN should use smart meters, especially if the target reaches up to 1 million/year household customers per year, because it will provide benefits in terms of CAPEX and OPEX meters, as well as eliminate potential risk of account of receivable up to 32.25 billion rupiah if PGN household customer up to 4.7 million

Keyword:smart meter; LPWAN; household gas network; cost benefit analysis; technology