Prepaid power meters elude govt offices

Hyderabad: The State government, which had proposed to install prepaid electric meters to check unregulated use of energy in government offices in April 2016, is still dragging its feet and is unlikely to implement it before the end of 2017.

According to sources in the Energy department, at present, the government offices pay their electricity bills after the consumption of the energy, but if prepaid meters are introduced, they will have to deposit the money in advance for which the government has to make provisions allocating sufficient funds. As of now, there was no such availability of funds, the source added.

The Energy department had favoured the prepaid meters as they provide automated meter reading. These devices have a tracking device which helps the consumer know about the actual consumption and it can do away with the present system of manual meter reading.

Not just that, even the Energy department can track actual consumption online and create a sense of responsibility among the users. To implement the scheme, it will require about 40,000 single phase and 15,000 three phase meters to cover all government offices and civic bodies.

These meters are also expensive as single phase meter costs around Rs 6,000 each while three phase meter costs over Rs 11,000 each. This does not include cost of installation.

The sources said thought about 100 such meters were installed on trial basis in some offices and had shown satisfactory results, the high cost involved in installing them was one of the reasons for keeping the issue pending.

However, the Energy department now proposes to submit a revised proposal to the government. Even if the government clears it now, it would not be possible to switch over to the new technology before the end of 2017, the sources added.