New Delhi: Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture under the administration of Ministry of Power, (GoI) is transforming India’s Power sector through its Smart Meter National Programme (SMNP). As part of the programme, it has installed over 28.39 lakh smart meters across India in states of Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, NDMC-Delhi, and Telangana. Most recently, the company completed the successful installation of over 10 lakh smart prepaid meters in the state of Bihar. This is the first time that smart prepaid meters are being installed at this scale and are set to bring paradigm shift in India’s energy landscape.
The company had signed an agreement with South Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited (SBPDCL) and North Bihar Power Distribution Company Ltd (NBPDCL) for the installation of 23.4 lakh smart prepaid meters in Bihar earlier last year and is expecting to complete the project by February 2023. With the installation of 10 lakh smart prepaid meters, DISCOMs in Bihar have been able to generate a daily revenue collection of over INR 3 Crore. The total revenue collected from smart meters in Bihar has already crossed INR 1000 crores. The prepaid smart meters will optimise the operational performance of Distribution Companies (DISCOMs) by increasing the billing and collection efficiency, reducing the operation and maintenance cost; and enhancing the quality of service, along with providing the consumers with demand side management (DSM) options.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Arun Kumar Mishra, CEO, EESL said, “Smart Metering is the fulcrum around which, India’s next chapter of energy security, reliability and sufficiency will be written. We at EESL, are committed to implementing innovative solutions to enable India in reaching its energy efficiency goals. However, without the zeal of NBPDCL and SBPDCL, we wouldn’t have achieved this milestone with such a pace in reforming Bihar’s Power Sector. My congratulations to the entire team working on this project for achieving 10 Lakh smart prepaid meters installation in the state.”
These smart prepaid meters are connected through a web-based monitoring system, which will help to reduce commercial losses of utilities, enhance revenues and serve as an important tool in power sector reforms. Some other key benefits of prepaid smart metering include a marked reduction in peak power purchase cost, the ability to conduct power quality analysis in near-real time such as power factor, maximum demand, voltage etc., and a sharp reduction in carbon footprint, chiefly due to the reduced patrolling for meter reading, disconnection / reconnection, outage detection etc.
For more information, visit www.eeslindia.org
