BENGALURU: Domesticand small industrial consumers of electricity, located in the HSR division of the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) will soon be able to keep a close eye on their power consumption and monitor their expenses accurately. BESCOM will be replacing around 6 lakh electricity meters with smart meters in the coming months. The proposal, restricted currently to five sub-divisions, will ensure benefits for consumers as well as help the electricity distribution company cut down on losses, officials said.
The proposal to replace the existing meters was accorded in-principle approval at the last board meeting of BESCOM and the utility is currently working out the modalities of the whole process. Explaining the necessity of smart meters, a BESCOM official said these meters would provide accurate usage data as well as reduce the time taken to detect power outages and fix them. In cases where power supply is affected in individual buildings or houses, it is always hard to realise that there is a power cut and often, field staff is dependent on the consumer to raise a complaint for them to be alerted. This will change with smart meters, the official added.
These meters, which are also being considered elsewhere in the state by other utilities like HESCOM (Hubbali Electricity Supply Company), will also provide remote monitoring of consumption data. They will also be able to alert the local staff if they are tampered with through internal mechanisms which will help check instances of electricity theft. "The quality of power supplied will also improve," the official added.
These benefits should more than outweigh the costs of these smart meters which cost around `10,000 each in the open market compared to `600, for a normal static meter. Last year, a panel of experts had been tasked with exploring the benefits vs cost implications for smart meters and the decision to go ahead with a pilot was late last month.
According to BESCOM, domestic consumers, low tension (LT) (small) industries as well as commercial lighting, heating and motive power customers would be included in the initial exercise. The areas under the sub-divisions selected include Bommanahalli, Electronics City, Begur, Vijaya Bank Layout, Agara, Bellandur and surrounding areas. For the company, benefits include a reduction in the expenses for recording meter readings manually as well as an improvement in the amount of power lost during distribution due to theft.
Benefits
l Accurate meter data
l Energy consumption availability
l Reduced billing errors
l Improved quality of power
l Tamper detection
l Faster detection/restoration of outages
l Faster restoration of outages
l Remote monitoring
Proposed sub divisions in HSR
l S8: Bommanahalli, Electronics City
l S10: Begur, Vijaya Bank
l S11: Agara, Bellandur, Dodda Kannahalli, Chennakeshav Nagar
l S12: Panduranganagar, Thallaghatpura
l S13: TVS Cross, ISRO, Peenya 3rd Stage, Narayanpura, Channasandra and
Horamavu 6,03,557 total number of consumers