Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan are leading the States in installation of smart meters across the country under the Centre’s Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) that aims to enhance the operational efficiency and financial health of all government-owned power distribution companies (DISCOMs) by FY 2025-26.
According to a presentation made at a two-day brainstorming session of state power ministers at Udaipur last week, the highest number of smart meters have been installed in UP (11,56,855) followed by Bihar (11,08,703), Rajasthan (5,55,958), Haryana (5,38,293), Assam (4,15,063), Delhi (2,59,094), Madhya Pradesh (2,43,313), Himachal Pradesh (1,47,104), Tamil Nadu (1,23,945) and Jammu & Kashmir (1,13,857).
What took everyone by surprise were the figures for Bihar, otherwise struggling on many parameters. “It has taken the lead in the smart meter roll-out in the county. Not only has it got the second highest smart meter installations after UP but also taken the lead by achieving 92% penetration of pre-paid smart meters,” sources said.
The presentation showed that Ashiyana and Bankipur, the two distribution areas with high smart meter penetration and taken as pilot cases, have witnessed their collection efficiency improve from 94% to 115% and from 92% to 105%, respectively. The recovery of arrears in the two areas too stood at 100%. The monthly revenue collection per consumer also increased by 65% in Ashiyana and by 34% in Bankipur. Besides Bihar, the initial results of the implementation of the smart-meter program in the Union territory of J&K also show a sharp improvement in all financial parameters of the respective discoms.
Apart from other objectives, RDSS aims at lowering of Aggregate, Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses to 12-15% by 2024-25 nationally and the ACS-ARR gap to zero by 2024-25.
A key ingredient of the scheme meeting the ambitious objectives of RDSS is Centre’s Rs 3.3 lakh crore plan to replace all 25 crore traditional meters in the country with pre-paid smart meters in the next three years. Already, around 50 lakh smart-meters have been installed in the country.
In the first phase, 10 crore meters are to be replaced in ‘priority areas’ (high loss, high value consumers) by December 2023. Meters in the remaining areas will be replaced by March 2025.
The smart meter project has been introduced by the Government of India with the objective to provide quality power and better services to consumers. The project will also help ensure accurate billing, accountability, transparency and efficiency among utilities, besides reducing technical and commercial losses.