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17 lakh homes to get smart electricity meters in AP
The Energy department is planning to introduce smart meters to replace 17 lakh conventional electricity meters with an aim to rationalise electricity consumption in the state.
Amaravati: The Energy department is planning to introduce smart meters to replace 17 lakh conventional electricity meters with an aim to rationalise electricity consumption in the state.
The department has decided to replace the conventional meters in households with consumption of more than 200 units per month. The state government has requested Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) to supply the 17 lakh smart meters.
The EESL has recently communicated that it had called for tenders of 5 million smart meters, of which AP would receive its share of 17 lakh meters. The average cost of each smart meter is estimated to be Rs 2,500.
“The EESL has promised to supply some quantum of smart meters within two months,” said a senior official of the energy department. Smart meters are part of overall Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) solutions which uses a GPS technology between the meters and power discoms.
The State government has proposed this to bring down commercial and technical loss of power utilities as the smart meters will increase billing efficiency.
Advisor to the State government (Energy department), K Ranganatham, told The Hans India that the smart meters would work as a two-way communication network as control centre equipment. It enables the power utilities to gather real-time information and secure energy usage information.
“The smart meters can provide quick and accurate measurement on electricity consumption on real-time and we can give commands to it on what to do,” he said. These meters, connected through a web-based monitoring system, will help reduce commercial losses of utilities, enhance revenues and serve a crucial role in power sector reforms.
“We can know the consumption pattern of consumers using Time of the Day (ToD) method. As a result, we impose penalty of Rs 1 per unit in peak hours and cut Rs 1 per unit between 10 pm and 2 am for industries where smart meters have already been introduced,” Ranganatham said.
The smart meter can be used as prepaid also. “Consumers can monitor their consumption pattern and can pay just like prepaid mobile phone plans,” Ranganatham said.
“Due to net metering system, there will be no scope for tampering the meters,” he said. However, the disadvantages are the smart meters put the human meter readers out of work and it is so complex to check the performance of the meters.
On other hand, the senior officials of energy department are unhappy with the poor progress of this particular scheme with respect to EESL’s work. “The EESL is failing in implementing contracts as per schedule. It has failed in supplying smart meters and electric vehicles also on time. We think it will take at least four years to complete this scheme across the State,” a senior official of energy department said.
