Tangedco floats bids for smart meter project

CHENNAI: The electricity consumers’ long pending demands for monthly billing could soon become possible with Tangedco floating bids for the smart meter installation in the low-tension consumers, except for agriculture and huts.

Tangedco has floated a separate request for proposals (RFP) for appointing advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) service providers for smart prepaid metering for procuring a total of 1.82 crore of LT and LT CT consumers covering 25 districts under the Revamped Distribution Sector Schemes.

A senior Tangedco official said another RFP covering the rest of the districts and also smart metering of the distribution transformers and feeders would be floated shortly.

“The end-to-end smart metering aims at reducing the loss of revenue, accurate billing and avoiding pilferage of energy both at the consumer end and at the distribution level. Inaccurate meter reading entries by the assessors lead to a loss of revenue. The metering of the transformers and feeders help identify the locations where energy pilferage happens and take steps to arrest it,” the official said.

The service providers would be given 18 months to complete the installation of the smart meters from the date of award of the issuance of the contract, the official said. On the monthly billing, the official said that it is a decision to be taken by the state government. “Irrespective of the billing period, the consumers would be empowered to monitor their energy consumption through a mobile app after the installation of the meteres.”