The Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL), in its bid to cut down aggregate technical and commercial losses, has decided to launch a state-wide drive for installing smart prepaid meters at the premises of domestic and commercial category consumers and on distribution transformers.
Principal Secretary (Energy) and Chairman of UPPCL, M Devraj, said that the Government of India had earmarked funds for metering and other associated works to be carried out under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS). He said the UPPCL was going to install as many as 73,27,988 smart prepaid meters in Varanasi discom, 75,28,737 in Lucknow discom, 53,54,069 in Agra discom, 61,43,361 in Meerut discom and 62,500 meters in KESCo distribution network.
Apart from metering, other works that will be covered under the RDSS are laying of armed cables in consumers’ premises, converting LT lines into aerial bunch conductor cables, separating the agriculture feeders, and strengthening 33 kV and 11 kV lines.
To execute the works, the Central government has earmarked a sum of Rs 4,543.78 lakh for Varanasi discom, Rs 4,165.32 lakh for Lucknow discom, Rs 371.57 lakh for Agra discom, Rs 3,403.01 lakh for Meerut discom and Rs 614.93 lakh for KESCo (Kanpur Electricity Supply Company).
The UPPCL aims to replace all the low tension power distribution lines with aerial bunch conductors (ABCs) to contain power theft.
The much-hyped smart electricity meter project had run into rough weather in August 2020 after a glitch that resulted in a massive power outage in major cities of the state. The UPPCL was forced to suspend the process of installation of 40 lakh meters in the state.
The UP government, taking a tough stand on the mass tripping of smart meters on Janmashtami, had directed the UPPCL to stop the installation of the smart meters immediately to avoid any further inconvenience to the people and to proceed with it only after ensuring that the meters were of good quality and tamper proof.
Many areas of Uttar Pradesh had suddenly plunged into darkness for many hours in 2020 after 1.6 lakh smart meter connections snapped in several cities, including Lucknow, Kanpur Nagar, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, Meerut, Moradabad, Mathura, Aligarh Saharanpur, Jhansi, Bareilly and Faizabad (now Ayodhya), forcing thousands of angry consumers to protest outside sub-stations.
The smart meter programme is meant for reforming the power sector and is one of the operational performance parameters of UDAY, (Ujwal discom assurance Yojana), the bailout scheme for the ailing discoms formulated by the Centre. It was expected to improve the discoms’ billing efficiency and ensure consumer satisfaction. UP had signed an MoU with EESL (Energy efficiency Services Limited) to replace 40 lakh conventional metres with energy efficient smart metres in 2018 and as many as 12 lakh smart meters have already been installed.