NEW DELHI :
The federal government has suspended good meter bids below its ₹3.03 trillion Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) until 15 March as a result of a number of points, two authorities officers conscious of the event mentioned, in a short lived setback for its bold plan to cut back energy theft and distribution losses.
The issues embody lack of communication by some put in good meters, extreme time taken in integrating Superior Metering Infrastructure (AMI) with the legacy billing software program of state-owned distribution corporations (discoms), and interoperatibility issues of headend system (HES) with a number of meter producers, stalling automated acquisition of meter information. There may be additionally delay in operationalizing pay as you go performance in these meters, and connections and disconnections are finished manually and never mechanically, defeating the target of avoiding human intervention. The programme can be going through a scarcity of chips.
The RDSS scheme goals to convey down India’s common combination technical and industrial loss from the current degree of 20%, to 12-15% and steadily slim the deficit between the price of electrical energy and the value at which it’s equipped to zero by 2024-25. The reforms are additionally geared toward bettering the reliability and high quality of energy provide.
The Union energy ministry on 10 January wrote to state-owned Energy Finance Corp. (PFC) and Rural Electrification Corp. (REC), “Primarily based on info accessible on the rollout of those good meters to this point, and suggestions gathered from varied stakeholders and in conferences, a couple of issues have additionally been famous within the tasks,” and added, “This has led to delays in implementation of good metering tasks.” Mint has seen a replica of the letter. The ministry additional mentioned, “Solely these bidders can be thought of and evaluated within the Bids which have successfully demonstrated an end-to-end pay as you go Sensible Metering answer.” PFC and REC are nodal businesses implementing RDSS, which has a obligatory good metering ecosystem element.
The world’s largest electrical energy good metering programme goals to switch 250 million standard meters with good ones that won’t solely assist scale back energy theft but additionally guarantee dependable electrical energy provide. A sensible meter structure minimizes human intervention in billing and assortment, and reduces theft by figuring out loss pockets. It requires a two-way communication community, management centre tools and software program functions that allow close to real-time gathering and switch of power utilization info.
A complete of three.3 million good meters have been put in throughout India, with 100 million extra to be commissioned and put in by December 2023.
This comes within the backdrop of discoms historically being the weakest hyperlink within the electrical energy worth chain, stricken by low collections. To make sure, the programme has additionally recorded advantages from good metering in pay as you go mode, a working example being Bihar which has reported round 20% improve in collections.
Supply: Live Mint