KUALA LUMPUR: Some 1.5 million Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) account holders in Melaka and the Klang Valley will be equipped with smart meters by end of this year.

TNB Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) project director Ir Mohamed Ghous Ahmad said so far, about 1.06 million of the meters had been installed in both areas.

In Melaka, he said,TNB had installed about 300,000 smart meters, while in the Klang Valley area about 706,000 houses had been installed with the equipment.

"Among the areas in Selangor where the meters have been installed are Shah Alam, Cheras, Bangi and Petaling Jaya, while in Kuala Lumpur, the areas included Bangsar, Bandar Sri Damansara, Segambut and Ampang.

"Through the Incentive-Based Regulation (IBR), TNB is given an allocation to install 1.5 million smart meters by the end of this year and based on the number that have been installed, we are confident the rest will be installed by end of the year," he told Bernama.

Mohamed Ghous said TNB was also in the process of obtaining additional allocation from the federal government to provide the smart meters for all the three million TNB subscribers in the Klang Valley.

"Our target is to get all the 9.1 million TNB subscribers nationwide to be equipped with smart meters by 2026," he added.

Meanwhile, TNB Selangor Retail Head Ismail Lathifi Teh said the installation of the smart meters will give various advantages to customers including allowing them to monitor their total daily electricity consumption.

"With this smart meter, the usage data will be sent every 30 minutes to the TNB data storage centre, whereby the TNB customers who have the MyTNB application can monitor and control their electricity consumption on a daily basis.

"The use of the smart meter also educates consumers to use energy prudently," he added.

He hoped more TNB users would download the app and take advantage of it.

He also advised the public to contact the TNB line if they have any doubt on individuals or contractors who appeared at their premises to change the meters.

They can call the TNB customer service line at 1-300-88-5454, he said.

-- BERNAMA