Tangedco’s delay in smart meter installation irks T Nagar residents

As  of  now,  the  utility  has  installed  around  15,000  meters  in  the households. The homes with smart  meters  would  be  paying  the  electricity  charges  for  their  exact consumption as against those  having  conventional  meters  were  forced  to pay the 2019 bill.

T   Nagar   Residents   Welfare   Association president V Jayaraman  said  that  they  have  been  waiting  for  the  smart  meters  to  be   installed   at   their   homes.   “Smart  meters  were  proposed  under   the   smart   city   project   four  years  ago.  Even  after  the  purchase  of  the  meters,  the  installation  is  getting  delayed.  If  the    Tangedco    had    installed    smart   meters,   T   Nagar   residents  would  be  paying  the  bill  for   whatever   electricity   consumed by them,” he said.

According  to  Tangedco  official,  about  1.41  lakh  smart  meters  have  been  procured  from  Venus   Power   Ventures   India   Ltd  to  be  installed  in  the  consumer  premises.

“Meter  installation  was  delayed  because  of  COVID-19.  After  the  first  wave,  we started installing the meters in  the  households  and  installed  nearly  15,000  meters.  Following  the second wave, we were forced to  suspend  the  meter  installation    works.    The    consumers    were also apprehensive over al-lowing the workers to enter the premises   to   install   the   smart   meters,” the official said, adding that    the    meter    installation    would be completed once the situation becomes normal.

The    smart    meters    would    eliminate  human  intervention  for  fetching  meter  data  and  to  facilitate  disconnections  or  re-connection    remotely    making    use of the meters with radio frequency-based     communication     technology.   They   were   procured at the cost of Rs 137 crore.