**Title**: Energy in the North - Okwuchukwu Chukwu
**Date**: August 12, 2026
**Participants**: Amanda Byrd, Okwuchukwu Chukwu

00;00;00;08 - 00;00;11;18 [Okwuchukwu Chukwu] our credits was running low, my aunt suggested that we turn off unnecessary appliances and wait till we get home to turn them back on because everybody's just trying to ensure that you save as much as possible.

00;00;11;18 - 00;00;38;12 [Amanda Byrd] This week on energy in the North I speak with Okwuchukwu Chukwu, who recently defended her master's thesis in electrical engineering at UAF. Okwuchuku grew up in Nigeria and use prepaid meters for her electric utility bills. In Alaska, she wanted to look at how human behavior impacted electricity use and how that in turn impacts the electric grid. I started the conversation by asking Okwuchukwu what a prepaid electric meter is.

00;00;38;12 - 00;01;00;00 [Okwuchukwu Chukwu] The postpaid system, So you use energy and then at the end of the month your utility sends you a bill that shows how much energy you have consumed, then you have to pay for that. But in a prepaid system you are in control because it's more like a pay-before-use model. So in a prepaid system you have to pay in advance. So you pay for the electricity and then you start using it.

00;01;01;00 - 00;01;13;05 [Amanda Byrd] And I know that they are used in remote communities to help residents keep control of the expense of electric power. How are they used in Nigeria?

00;01;13;05 - 00;02;04;27 [Okwuchukwu Chukwu] The major reason why we had to switch from post-pay to pre-pay, at the end of the month when people get their bill, their surprise that what they received was different from what they estimated that they had spent. So because when in a post-paid, you can't really tell how much energy you've consumed until you get the bill, people started advocating for a prepaid system so you in better control of how much energy you're using. It has something called CIU or in-home display that shows you how much energy you're consuming. So if you're able to see that, you could even probably question your family that everybody should know how they're using electricity, and then helping utilities with revenue collection. But my research was asking a different question. It was looking at how does the electricity metering you're using influence how you consume electricity, and then how does that impact the grid?

00;02;04;27 - 00;02;09;27 [Amanda Byrd] And so you also worked with remote communities in Alaska
 for your research.

00;02;09;27 - 00;03;36;08 [Okwuchukwu Chukwu] We worked with Tatitlek and it was really interesting. So they are using an Ampy prepaid metering system. What interested me was the behavioral aspect of prepaid system encourages some, behavioral traits in humans So I recall in my family when we noticed that our credit was running low, my aunt suggested that we turn off unnecessary appliances and wait till we get home to turn them back on because everybody's just trying to ensure that you save as much as possible, and that also was consistent with what I found in literature, and even from interviews with the Alaska Remotes Committee with respect for this work, because it was said they would even watch TV without lights in the room, they had to buy more energy efficient appliances. So people are just starting to take steps to ensure that you reduce how much you're consuming. So based on that, we came up with three models for my work. So we have the post-paid but you don't get immediate feedback. Then we have the prepaid rationing. And that captures the category of people that try to reduce their risk, use it as much as possible. Then the last one is a prepaid batching And that's it's just trying to, represent the class of people that either run out of credits, because when you run out of credits and prepaid, nothing happens until you recharge. So the prepaid batching covers that category, and then does the cost to usage, just like my aunts, for instance. So those that have to self disconnect with to the end of the day to turn on appliances.

00;03;36;08 - 00;03;43;22 [Amanda Byrd] And how did those three different models impact the actual cost of the resident electricity?

00;03;43;22 - 00;04;46;00 [Okwuchukwu Chukwu] So from what we found out. So that's definitely prepaid saved energy more than post-paid because in prepaid system people are conscious. So if you're using less energy that translates to lower electricity costs. And for a diesel powered microgrid which was my context for my research that would mean fuel savings. But for me, the most interesting thing that I found out in my thesis was when we tried to make all three models to consume the same quantity of energy, because are not just trying to look at how much energy you consume, but wanted to see if we all consume energy differently, does it really impact the grid in any way. So we tried to allow the three models consume the same quantity of energy, but then do so differently. And we found out that, people that cluster usage - prepaid batching - actually impacts the grid more because it resorted to more stress on the generator. You saw that in higher peaks and faster, changes in demand.

00;04;46;00 - 00;04;58;08 [Amanda Byrd] Personally, having used a prepaid meter and living in Fairbanks now, where you're using a system, how how do you feel about prepaid systems?

00;04;58;08 - 00;05;12;16 [Okwuchukwu Chukwu] Those experiences about it, prepaid, stayed with me. That even though I mean, the postpaid system, sometimes I just have to go around the house switching off things because it it like is something that I've done for so many years. But then the habit is still there.

00;05;12;16 - 00;05;25;19 [Amanda Byrd] Okwuchukwu is a graduate student at the Alaska Center for Energy and Power, and I'm Amanda Byrd, Chief Storyteller for ACEP. Find this story and more at uaf.edu/acep and follow us on social media.