Government of India plans to roll-out smart power meters nationwide, will cost about Rs 1.5 trillion ($21 billion), according to the estimation of government. This concept will be expected to help to improve the billing and collection, which are the most basic problem facing by country’s ailing distribution companies, which is commonly known as discoms. These utilities controlled by their state governments, lose money because of poor billing and theft of power, which often leads to delaying payment to generators and depriving their customer of reliable supplies. The estimation of the price tag for smart meters includes hardware, installation and operations such as the system integration and data analysis, said by Sanjiv Nandan Sahai Power Secretary. About, 250 million prepaid meters across the country will raise enough revenue to cover the cost and leads to some savings for state power distributors, also said.
The systems will provide discoms with real-time data on the consumption of each consumer, helping them spot thefts and losses, as well as plan power purchases better, according to Sambitosh Mohapatra, partner for power and utilities at PricewaterhouseCoopers India. One Million smart power meter has already installed across four states of the country, according to the statement.
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