APEPDCL takes the ‘smart’ route to reduce evasion of bills by government offices
In a first, the Discom sets up a smart meter, which is a pre-paid device, at the Office of the Executive Engineer of the Public Health Department in Visakhapatnam; there are dues of ₹15 crore pending from the government departments and others within the GVMC limits alone, says official
Taking a cue from the Union government’s reforms in the energy sector, the power utilities in Andhra Pradesh have launched the smart-metering system in Visakhapatnam for the first time.
The Eastern Power Distribution Company of AP Limited (APEPDCL) in Visakhapatnam installed a smart meter at the Office of the Executive Engineer of the Public Health Department at Sithammadhara.
“We have started installing smart meters in Visakhapatnam for the first time in the State. We will cover designated government department offices in an order of priority,” an EPDCL spokesperson told The Hindu on Sunday.
The motto is to reduce the number of power bill evaders. At present, companies such as the EPDCL are not facing any difficulty in collecting bills from residential and commercial consumers. But collecting bills from the government departments is a daunting task for them.
“There are dues of ₹15 crore pending from the government departments and others within the GVMC limits alone, excluding giant companies such as RINL-Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. Now, if the smart meters are installed, consumers will have to make advance payments as they are pre-paid meters. Till now, we are able to manage by sending reminders and issuing notices, but not able to collect the bill amounts,” said another EPDCL official.
At present, EPDCL has over 70 lakh consumers under its jurisdiction covering five operational circles from the erstwhile districts of Srikakulam to West Godavari.
The Discom has about 15 lakh electricity consumers in Visakhapatnam circle. About 3,000 of these connections belong to the government departments.
Apart from this, 1.1 lakh consumers need smart meters as they come under commercial category. The remaining do not need smart meters, as they are domestic consumers and their bills do not exceed ₹2,000 per month. Moreover, they make regular payments and are never defaulters.
“We currently have only 500 smart meters. The procurement of devices is going on. We will cover the targeted consumers on priority basis. Later, we will cover the remaining consumers. If everything goes well, we will install smart meters for all targeted consumers by the end of this financial year,” the EPDCL official said.
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Andhra Pradesh
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power (infrastructure)
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electricity production and distribution