Techno economic analysis of smart meter reading implementation in PLN Bali using LoRa technology

Traditional electricity meters read manually, large workloads, major errors and distributed at different installation locations, need to spend a lot of time and labor costs. In real-time, the accuracy and extension of the application cannot be fulfilled. With technological developments, electric meters now can be used both ways, for real-time remote reading, and can be used as prepaid and postpaid, making it smart meter. Currently the smart meter has become an important part of the smart grid system. Therefore, the national power utility company (PLN) Bali region decided to replace the existing meter with smart meter to support Bali Eco Smart Grid. Long Range (LoRa) wide area network (WAN) is the access technology that used for implementing smart meter because it has benefits including can reach long distance, low power, and lower cost. This study aims to analyze the techno economic smart meter 2 ways implementation at Bali region by using techno-economic method and cost-benefit analysis. In addition to analyze technological and economic aspects, the business model and the regulatory aspect analysis are also included. The results show that LoRa WAN is one of the technology options that can be used today, the business model that can be used is build own or implementation is done by itself, build operate transfer (BOT) or outsourcing to third party, and rental model. According the ministry of communication and information regulation number 35/2015, LoRa WAN that operate at frequencies 923-925 MHz can be implemented to support smart meter implementation by Bali PLN.