Prepayment meters photo gallery

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Source: IT Power
NUA staff and local contractors being shown how to install a prepayment meter by the staff from Top Energy (Fiji) Ltd. Here, the electrician on the ladder is stapling the communications cable that goes to the CIU, while another electrician is connecting the cables to the meter. The main fuse protecting the house from the electric grid (in the little black box, at the top of the picture) has been removed while the electricians work on the meter.

                                                                                                                                                                             Source: IT Power
Connecting the cables to the meter

                                                                                                                                                                             Source: IT Power
The meter is now connected. The white cable on the left is the communication cable that goes inside the house to the Customer Interface Unit (CIU), the keypad that lets the homeowner enter the codes for electricity credit. The blue cables at right are the main electric cables.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Source: IT Power
Stapling the CIU cable

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The CIU cable will go through the wall...

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... to the living room inside the house, where the CIU will be located. Here, the electricians are setting up the CIU.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Source: IT Power
Now that everything is installed, the main fuse is reinstalled to provide power to the house.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Source: IT Power
A final check of the meter is done. All is well.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Source: IT Power
The CIU in the house. The smiley face shows that everything works well. The meters were initially installed in post-pay mode, then switched to prepay mode at the end of the project.

                                                                                                                                                                             Source: IT Power
The final installation. The old meter enclosure was removed, and replaced with a new one. The enclosure is closed usine a special tool, so that people do not have access to the cables inside. The small window can be opened by the homeowner.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Source: IT Power
A three-phase meter. Some homes required three-phase power because of some of the appliances inside (machine tools, generators, etc.)

                                                                                                                                                                             Source: IT Power
The three-phase meter in its enclosure. In many cases the meter enclosure was in good enough condition that it could be used for the new prepayment meter.

                                                                                                                                                                             Source: IT Power
A typical switchboard at Location before the prepayment meter project. The wires are connected together with tape, fuses and breakers are bypassed, there is no cover on the switchboard, nothing is labeled, and circuits are overloaded.

                                                                                                                                                                             Source: IT Power
The switchboard after the prepayment meter instllation team has rewired the building. A perspex board was later installed on top to hide the wiring, leaving only the breakers visible.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Source: IT Power
A typical finished installation at Location. The meters are locked away to avoid tampering.

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A transformer room at Location. Note the ease with which one can enter a potentially dangerous area.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Source: IT Power
Bypassed/burnt-out fuses on the low-voltage side of a transformer at Location. Some phases were burnt-out completely, meaning that some apartments would not receive power. This led to some creative, yet unsafe, wiring at the switchboard in order to get power from a phase that still worked. The fuses at the transformers would burn out from short-circuits at the apartments due to jerry-rigged wiring (which was caused by overloading the residential circuits with too many appliances). The EDF-10 funding will be used by the NUA to upgrade the deteriorated equipment on the grid.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Source:Ann Kwon 
Over 1,800 prepayment meters were installed in May, June and July 2009. The existing meters on homes and businesses were replaced and brought to the NUA offices for disposal.