VIJAYAWADA: In a bid to develop Vijayawada as a smart and safe city with regard to power connectivity, the Andhra Pradesh Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (APSPDCL) has come up with various measures. The Discom is making efforts to achieve 100 per cent power meter reading without any human intervention to achieve optimum consumer satisfaction levels.
Speaking to reporters here on Thursday, APSPDCL superintending engineer (Vijayawada circle) N Venkateswarlu said the company was equipping the existing power lines (33 kV and 11 kV lines) with covered power conductors to provide safe and quality power supply.
The Discom would construct Gas Insulated Substation in Vijayawada at an estimated cost of Rs 100 crore. The modern substation, which will be a closed one, will be built near Swaraj Maidan. It will be ready by next summer and the Discom is planning to bring more substations under its purview.
The APSPDCL is also planning to set up 18 new indoor substations in Vijayawada by spending Rs 4.5 crore on each. “It is our contribution for the beautification of Vijayawada,” Venkateswarlu said. The SE said that in view of the complaint from the consumers with regard to meter reading and false bills, the Discom has come up with a system to negate human intervention. “We are replacing the conventional energy meters with IRDA digital meters. At the pre-designated time every month, our staff will visit the households and scan the meters. There will not be any physical feeding and the power consumption will be automatically recorded on to the device and bill will be generated,” he explained.
As of now, 80 per cent of the conventional meters have been replaced and by end of December, the DISCOM expects 100 per cent IRDA digital meters in Krishna district. As the rate of power consumption in the domestic category has increased, with more and more households installing ACs, water motors, high-end TVs and refrigerators and other electrical and electronic equipment, the power load on every individual household has increased and it is more than the 1kw load connectivity to given to the households.
“We are requesting the consumers to regularise their load connectivity by applying for new load category voluntarily and we are offering 50 per cent subsidy for the same till September 30. During this period, consumers can pay just Rs 600 instead of Rs 1200 for upgrading to new load category,” Venkateswarlu said.
APSPDCL officer said that they are encouraging digital payments of power bills to avoid late payments, which results in power disconnection and reconnection charges. A mobile app was developed by the discom for digital payments.