34.5 lakh outdated meters causing revenue loss to TANGEDCO for over a decade

CHENNAI: TANGEDCO has been suffering revenue losses for more than a decade due to the non-replacement of around 34.5 lakh outdated electro-mechanical meters and high-quality meters without maximum demand (MD) recording facility even as it plans to install smart meters.

S Neelakanta Pillai, a retired Tangedco engineer and an activist, said that of the 3.37 crore service connections across the state, 28 lakh connections have high-quality meters without an MD recording facility and 6.5 lakh electro-mechanical meters were being used.

The Tiruchy distribution region has the maximum number of 2.94 lakh electro-mechanical meters, while the Salem region has 1.44 lakh meters.

In the Chennai region, where 1.29 lakh smart meters were installed under the smart city project in T Nagar, nearly 9,500 electro-mechanical meters and 2.7 lakh high-quality meters are in use.

“The Union Ministry of Power has come out with schemes like Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme, Restructured-APDRP, and Integrated Power Development Scheme and funding to replace outdated meters with modern meters in the past two decades. The schemes aim to reduce distribution losses and arrest revenue losses,” Pillai said, adding that the usage of the electro-mechanical meters would result in revenue loss for the utility. He said he has written to TANGEDCO to replace the old outdated meters.

Unlike electro-mechanical meters, digital meters are highly sensitive, minimise the possibility of pilferage, have a more accurate recording of consumption and don’t get appreciably affected by mechanical and magnetic disturbances.

Activists wondered how many decades it would take for TANGEDCO to replace over three crore existing meters with smart meters. He suggested that the utility has a stock of over six lakh static meters and static meters without MD facility, which can replace electro-mechanical meters.

A senior TANGEDCO official said all the old meters will be replaced with smart meters once the tender for the same is awarded.