Environmental sustainability and life cycle cost analysis of smart versus conventional energy meters in developing countries

Abstract

The sustainability of smart energy meters (SM) in comparison to conventional static energy meters (CM) in developing regions of the world is an area of rising interest and research. The study aims at the characterization of the environmental and economic sustainability of SMs in context to developing low-middle income countries like Pakistan. Life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) methods have been used for the requisite analysis. While 6 midpoint categories; climate change potential (CCP), ozone depletion potential (ODP), terrestrial ecotoxicity potential (TETP), fossil resource scarcity potential (FFP), water consumption potential (WCP) and 1 endpoint category; damage to human health have been selected. Highest impact scores have been determined in CCP, FFP, WCP i.e., 9.61E+00 and 7.60E+00 kg CO2 eq., 9.59E+00 and 7.77E+00 kg oil eq., 6.98E+00 and 6.69E+00 m3 water for CM and SM respectively. The overall highest impact is contributed by the production phase for both type of energy meters. In LCC analysis the initial cost of SM and CM has been calculated as 52.76 USD and 47.52 USD respectively, while the overall life cycle cost of SM is 61% less than that of CM. As such there are significant environmental and economic benefits of the deployment of SM as determined under the complete life cycle perspective. There is still a long lag to be covered by developing countries for the deployment of such smart-sustainable technologies. Policy interventions and roll-out programs can establish that SM not just an electricity metering system, rather is a comprehensive communication portal for buyers and sellers.