Indore (Madhya Pradesh): By setting a target of completing 100 per cent smart meter installation in four cities within a year, the Madhya Pradesh West Zone Electricity Distribution Company has speeded up the installation process. “Between 35% and 50% meter installations has been done in Khargone, Ratlam, Ujjain and Dewas. Due to the Covid-19 crisis, the installation work had been affected, but, now, it has gathered pace again,” West Discom officials said.
Replacement of the old conventional meters with new smart digital meters in 6 major cities under West Discom is progressing rapidly. The initiative of smart meter installation in Indore and 5 other cities was taken up in August 2018. Around 120,000 smart meters were installed in Indore in 2018-’20. In the urban areas of Mhow, 100% smart meter installation has been completed and around 15,000 smart meters have been installed in the cantonment.
When asked about the progress of work, Amit Tomar, MD, MP West zone Electricity Distribution Company, replied, “The smart meter cell of the electricity distribution company is doing very well. Many other states and power companies have expressed admiration for the smart meter project. At present, instructions have also been issued to accelerate the smart meter work in Dewas, Ratlam, Ujjain and Khargone.”
Work on the third phase of installation of 10 kW meters in Indore is progressing smoothly. Around 16,000 out of 20,000 meters have already been installed in various areas. The total target of smart meter installation in these 6 cities is 325,000.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also instructed replacing conventional meters in the entire country with smart meters within 4 to 5 years. To intensify the work on installation of smart meters, the Smart Meter National Programme (SMNP) was introduced, which aims at replacing 25 crore conventional meters with smart ones.
§ Smart Meter is an electronic device that records such information as consumption of electric energy, voltage level at an hourly, daily or monthly rate
§ It communicates the information to consumers for greater clarity on consumption & electricity suppliers for system monitoring and customer billings
