Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) has installed more than five lakh smart meters in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, under Smart Meter National Programme (SMNP) to enhance consumer convenience and rationalise power consumption.
“To overcome challenges including billing inefficiencies, unauthorised power consumption, and reduce Discoms’ financial woes, the government is accelerating the adoption of smart meters. Thrust on such efficient systems is critical for consumption and growth in a sustainable manner. It will also enhance consumer experience through improved service delivery,” said Saurabh Kumar, MD, EESL.
Smart meters are part of the overall advanced metering infrastructure solution that measures and records consumers’ electricity usage at various times in a day and sends this information to the energy supplier through General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) technology.
It offers consumers better access to information and enables them to make more informed decisions on usage of power at homes. It can immediately control aggregate technical and commercial losses, due to power pilferage, bypassing and defective meters, or errors in meter readings. Every kilowatt of power drawn from the grid is thus accounted for - and billed, therefore boosting discom’s revenues.
A public sector enterprises under the Ministry of Power, EESL’s model - Pay As You Save has been the base of implementation. EESL procures smart meters including servicing, enabling Discoms to get benefit with zero upfront investment.
Their repayment to EESL is through the monetisation of energy savings, resulting from enhanced billing accuracy, avoided meter reading costs and other efficiencies. These savings further enable distribution companies to invest in value-added services for its consumers.
In a move that is critical for the country’s power sector reforms, the SMNP aims to retrofit 25 crore conventional meters with smart variants leading to 80-100 per cent improvement in billing efficiency.
Smart technology
Smart meters are part of the overall advanced metering infrastructure solution that measures and records consumers’ electricity usage and sends this to the energy supplier