Nama Bets on Grid Data and AI After 80% Smart Meter Rollout

Nama Electricity Distribution has mostly finished building the digital layer of its grid. Its smart meter coverage was about 80 percent at the end of 2025, and an automatic load transfer system between transformers is fully complete. Oman's main power distributor now says it wants to use that data. In a briefing reported by Times of Oman via the Oman News Agency on 25 October 2026, the company said it is expanding its use of big data, advanced analytics and artificial intelligence to monitor asset health and support predictive maintenance across a network that serves around 1.4 million subscribers.

⚡ Key Takeaways

• Nama Electricity Distribution says its smart meter rollout reached about 80 percent by the end of 2025, according to Times of Oman.
• The company plans to connect smart meters more tightly with GIS, SCADA, ADMS and network sensing and control systems, so it can monitor the grid in real time and find and fix faults faster.
• Big data, analytics and AI will be used for asset health monitoring and predictive maintenance.
• A new outage management system connects the call centre with emergency teams. The Automatic Load Transfer System between transformers reached 100 percent completion in 2025.
• The new data push starts from a stated baseline: in 2025 the average outage lasted about 177 minutes, and each subscriber had about two outages on average.
• Nama has an investment plan worth more than OMR600 million for 2026 to 2029, covering a network of more than 105,000 km outside Dhofar.

🔍 What Nama Actually Disclosed

The update came from Eng. Khalfan Nasser Al Bartamani, Chief Commercial Officer at Nama Electricity Distribution. He described a shift in priorities. Over the past several years the company concentrated on digitising its network. Now the aim is to get value out of the data that network produces. According to the ONA report carried by Times of Oman, Al Bartamani said the company does not see smart meters as merely a tool for reading consumption. It sees them as an essential digital infrastructure for the wider grid.

This framing is significant. A smart meter that only sends a monthly reading saves a meter-reader's trip. A smart meter that feeds voltage, load and outage signals into control-room software can tell operators where a fault is, sometimes before a customer calls to report it.

🧩 The Technology Stack Being Connected

According to the report, Nama plans to integrate these systems more closely:

• Smart meters: about 80 percent deployed by the end of 2025.
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS): to map assets and outages precisely.
• SCADA: supervisory control and data acquisition, the real-time control layer of the network.
• ADMS: an advanced distribution management system.
• Fault location systems and remote control units: to be connected with SCADA so faults can be located faster and supply restored remotely.
• Outage management system: already in place, linking the call centre with emergency teams using real-time monitoring, operational data and GIS.

Nama says the AI layer will sit on top of this stack and focus on asset health monitoring and predictive maintenance. The idea is to spot transformers, cables or switchgear that are likely to fail and service them before they do, rather than sending crews after a breakdown.

📊 The Numbers in One Place

All figures above come from the Times of Oman report.

🏠 What It Could Mean for Households and Businesses

The figure most customers will care about is the outage baseline. Nama has now published reliability numbers for 2025: outages lasted about 177 minutes on average, and each subscriber saw about two. That gives the public a benchmark for judging whether the data and AI push improves service. If smart meters, SCADA and fault-location units work together as Nama describes, the biggest gains should come from shorter restoration times. Crews would be sent to the right feeder at once instead of patrolling a line to find the fault.

The rollout builds on earlier grid work. In September we covered Nama's RO 20.5 million substation and grid automation programme in Al Dakhiliyah, which included automation and smart management systems alongside new substations in Nizwa, Bahla, Izki, Adam and Samail. The new update describes the next layer above that hardware: analytics and AI running across the whole network.

⚠️ What Is Still Unclear

This is a stated plan. It is not a contract award or a system go-live, and several important details were not disclosed in the report:

• No timeline for the AI tools: the company says it is "moving toward" wider use of AI, but gives no launch dates or milestones.
• No technology partners named: it is not said who supplies the analytics or AI platforms, or whether they are built in-house.
• No digital budget breakdown: the OMR600 million plan covers network expansion and reinforcement in general. It is not clear how much goes to data and AI systems.
• No reliability targets: no target for cutting the 177-minute average outage duration was published.
• The last 20 percent of meters: remaining smart meter installations are often the hardest, in remote or older sites, and no completion date was given.

🇴🇲 Why this matters for Oman

Electricity distribution is one of the largest pieces of physical infrastructure in Oman. Nama's network runs more than 105,000 km and reaches about 1.4 million subscribers. Moving its operations from reacting to faults to predicting them touches almost every home, business and factory outside Dhofar. It also supports Vision 2040 goals that depend on a flexible grid, such as integrating renewable energy and serving new industrial demand. Nama has now published its own baseline figures for outage duration, outage frequency and smart meter coverage. That means Omanis can check over the coming years whether the investment in data and AI is producing a more reliable grid.