The smart grid project involving six towns in Rajasthan recorded good progress during March 2021, a government report indicates.
According to a report by National Smart Grid Mission (NSGM), a total of 6,231 smart meters were installed in March 2021, making it the busiest month so far in terms of smart meter installations for the Rajasthan smart grid project.
Till March 31, 2021, the number of smart meters installed stood at 13,301.
The smart grid project is being implemented by state power discom Jaipur Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Ltd (JVVNL) in six towns of Baran, Bharatpur, Bundi, Dholpur, Jhalawar and Karauli districts. It will cover 1.5 lakh consumers.
It may be mentioned that JVVNL manages power distribution in 12 districts of Jaipur, Dausa, Alwar, Bharatpur, Dholpur, Kota, Bundi, Baran, Jhalawar, Sawai Madhopur, Tonk and Karauli.
The smart grid project aims at Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) with smart meters equipped with standard features like remote meter data reading, time of day metering, prepaid/postpaid billing, among several others.
In February 2021, as many as 49,000 smart meters were supplied to JVVNL. This implies that a healthy rollout can be expected in the coming months.
The JVVNL smart grid project is estimated to cost Rs.87.43 crore, which includes financial support of Rs.26.23 crore from Government of India. It is further learnt that Rs.2.61 crore out of the total GoI assistance was released in March 2021.
NSGM Projects
The JVVNL project is among the five Smart Grid projects under National Smart Grid Mission (NSGM). The other four are located in Chandigarh (Subdivision 5), Chandigarh (entire city excluding Subdivision 5), Odisha (Rourkela City) and Jharkhand (Ranchi City). The total consumers being covered by these five projects is a little over 9 lakh.
