Uganda's largest electricity distribution company UMEME put out a tender for a Prepayment Metering turnkey Business Solution in 2010, which led to the deployment of the Yaka smart electricity meters as we know them today.
As a company, UMEME expected to address some challenges like poor payment of electricity bills, high cost of billing as well as create an opportunity for easier monitoring of consumers' meters and energy consumption.
Y aka metering system includes a Customer interface unit (CIU) that is easily accessible on the user premises. Upon any payment, a 20-digit token MUST be entered to have units loaded into the meter. The process of entering a 20-digit token number is a challenge to users as it requires their physical presence to enter the 20-digits. Where one requires remote entry of the tokens to activate the units bought, it is currently impossible as tokens require physical presence at the CIU.
To bring convenience to the users, GSM based a Yaka-meter activation system that doesn't require user to input the 20-digit token number on CIUs is being proposed. The system ensures that upon any payment, the 20-digit token is automatically loaded into the meter through a mobile platform.