Case study- smart meters ABC Bhd. (ABC) is the only utility company in West Malaysia that distributes electricity to industries and households. It has a large number of customers. All customer sites and homes were installed with electricity meters to record the consumption of electricity. Meter readers will generate the electricity bill regularly after reading the electricity usage from the meters. This is to ensure that ABC will receive its streams of cash flows from its customers.

Two years ago, the government launched the awareness of Industry 4.0. The government encourages industry players and small and medium size enterprises to digitize their business processes. Digitizing is one of the ways to enhance productivity and efficiency. ABC has taken the initiative and recently ABC has replaced the old meters with smart meters. The smart meters are designed so that they are difficult to dismantle without causing obvious damages and they also have a seal that is made out of soft metal that will be broken if the meter is ever opened.

The smart meter will record consumption of electricity and this information will be stored on the meter that will transmit data to and from the meters and ABCs IT system will send coded messages to meters to request readings as and when required. The meter will be fitted with a chip that will transmit a warning if it is tampered with either physically or electronically. These electronic readings will be done monthly. The customers will receive an electronic electricity bill. Alternatively, the customer will receive soft copy of the electricity bill in their smart phone.

With this smart meter, hard copies of electricity bills are no longer required.An annual check will be carried out by ABC s inspectors in the evening. As most customers are at home then and it is an efficient way to conduct the annual checks. If a customer is not at home, the inspector will leave a card to request an opportunity to inspect the meter. If the customer does not respond to the card within seven working days, ABC will send up to three weekly reminders. Generally, all customers are cooperative but a small minority do not respond and ABC can apply to the court for the right to force

(b) Evaluate four risks that might arise from the introduction of smart meters and suggests how each risk might be dealt with. (20 marks)