Discoms in Bihar have been able to generate daily revenue of Rs.3 crore per day, thanks to the over 10 lakh smart prepaid meters installed under the Smart Meter National Programme (SMNP), spearheaded by Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL).
In a release, EESL said that it has recently completed the installation of 10 lakh smart meters in Bihar. On a national basis, EESL, under SMNP, has so installed over 28.39 lakh smart covering Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi (NDMC area), and Telangana.
“This is for 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 release said.
Agreement with Bihar
The 10 lakh smart prepaid meters installed in Bihar is part of an agreement signed last year between EESL and Bihar discoms – SBPDCL and NBPDCL – for the installation of 23.4 lakh smart prepaid meters. The project is expected to be completed by February 2023.
Thanks to the 10 lakh prepaid meters already installed, Bihar discoms have been able to generate daily revenue in excess of Rs.3 crore. The total revenue collected from smart meters in Bihar has crossed Rs.1,000 crore on a cumulative basis, the EESL release said.
The advantage
Prepaid smart meters can optimise the operational performance of distribution companies by increasing the billing and collection efficiency, reducing operation and maintenance cost; and enhancing the quality of service, along with providing the consumers with demand side management (DSM) options.
Smart metering and energy security
Speaking on the Bihar milestone, 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.”
Read more: India’s Smart Meter Population Crosses 4 Million
How it works
Smart prepaid meters are connected through a web-based monitoring system, which 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.
