'Monthly billing will be introduced after installation of smart meters'

CHENNAI: Finance and Electricity Minister Thangam Thennarasu on Tuesday said that monthly billing would be introduced after the installation of the smart meters.

After inspecting the substation at Foreshore Estate, the minister said that the monthly billing system could be implemented only after the installation of the smart meters.

Tangedco has invited bids to install smart meters for all the Low-Tension consumers including domestic consumers in the state.

With the ruling DMK promised in the 2021 state assembly polls manifesto that the monthly billing system would be introduced, the consumers, particularly, domestic users were eagerly expecting it.

The minister said that the sudden rains in the wee hours on Monday affected three substations out of the 208, 49 feeders (total 1857 feeders), 51 transformers out of 35,859 and 27 pillar boxes and Tangedco workers were on a war footing to fix the defects.

"All the areas that faced outages were given power supply in one hour time through other feeders. All the feeder lines were restored and faulty distribution transformers were replaced, " he said.

The minister said that wherever the defects were reported in the city, suburbs and other districts, rectification work has been on as per the instructions of chief minister M K Stalin.

On Monday, the minister chaired his maiden review meeting with Tangedco officers across the State through video conferencing and instructed them to ensure uninterrupted power supply to consumers.