Optimization of electricity power losses using Smart Metering systems in Romania

Smart metering systems are electronic systems that measure the electricity consumption, ensuring a secure two-way transmission of information to the end customer and providing more information than a conventional meter, using electronic communication. This type of smart metering technologies has been implemented in three pilot projects from a Romanian region, in order to ensure the collection, analysis and processing of electricity specific data, as well as the connection/disconnection of each consumer. The implementation of smart meters in the three pilot areas led to a more accurate recording of final electricity consumption and a detailed monitoring of the electricity consumption by types of consumption profiles, as well as the electricity technical power losses (ETL) indicator. This paper aims to analyze the evolution of electricity technical losses registered by smart metering systems in each of the three pilot projects and also for the whole region in a certain period, in order to demonstrate the need and importance of monitoring this type of power losses and to find the best methods to reduce them, using smart metering. The results showed that the cost of electricity for the technical power losses in the chosen area is very high. In order to reduce these costs, a number of measures for ETL optimization and reduction were proposed.