Smart, Pre-Paid electric meters soon to overcome power crisis

Tenders in final stage; 2 lakh in cities, 9.25 lakh in rurals in phase-I

JAMMU: After failing to check power theft and pilferage despite all efforts, the government has decided
to expedite process to install Smart Meters and Pre-Paid Meters in all the households of the state to
overcome the power crisis and also to generate revenue as per power consumption.
 Although, the decision to install Smart Meters and Pre-Paid Meters in the state was taken some time
back but the process for their installation has been expedited now due to the worst ever power crisis
prevailing in the state, especially in Jammu region.
The Pre-Paid meters will be installed in the rural areas, while in the urban areas, the already metered
areas, both Smart Meters and Pre-Paid Meters will be installed in every household replacing the present
electric meters, official sources in the Power Development Department (PDD) informed The News Now. 
To start with, a total of 2 lakh smart meters will be installed in the urban areas of the state in the first
phase. All the households in the urban areas will be covered in a phased manner and smart meters will
be installed in each household in urban areas of both Jammu and Kashmir.
 “In first phase, one lakh smart meters each in Jammu City and Srinagar City will be installed,” Chief
Engineer, PDD, Sudhir Gupta informed The News Now adding, “Similarly, 9.25 lakh pre-paid meters will
be installed in the rural areas of Jammu and Kashmir regions with equal distribution in both regions”. 
The remaining urban and rural areas of the state will be covered in a phased manner, he said.   
 “Tenders for both Smart Meters and pre-paid meters are in the final stages and process for their
installation in the urban and rural areas will be shortly started simultaneously,” the Chief Engineer said.
  
 Both Smart and pre-paid meters will be installed by  ITDPL, a Government of India undertaking, which
has been outsourced by the state government for the purpose, he said.
 The PDD has been asked to replace all existing conventional meters with smart meters and prepaid
meters.  The officials believe that together with other new initiatives, the department will cut down on
the revenue deficit of Rs 3500 crore per year.
Once installed, the Smart Meters and the Pre-Paid Meters will not only control energy consumption but
will also check power theft and pilferage, sources said. The existing electric meters will be replaced as
they proved to be a failure in controlling power theft and realizing revenue thus causing huge losses to
state ex-chequer.
 Apart from this, the Smart Meters and the Pre-Paid Meters will also minimise the role of field staff of
PDD, which more often than not is found involved in power theft leading loss of revenue in crores to the
government. 

The pre-paid meters will be similar to pre-paid phones and will have to be recharged. On consumption
of the recharged amount, the metres will trip the power supply. They will function again only on
recharging.
 In the areas, where Smart Meters will be installed, the consumers will get monthly bills. In bills are not
paid as per the scheduled date, the power supply to Smart Meters will automatically trip. It will function
again only on payment of bill.
 Sources said that unmetered i.e rural areas are much more than the metered areas. The illegal power
connections and power theft in these unmetered areas is one of the main reasons for the power crisis in
the state every peak season whether in Jammu or in Kashmir.
 Once pre-paid meters will be installed in rural areas, the power theft will be checked to a large extent,
they said.