Making the shifting of all power meters outside the premises of the consumer a top priority,Punjab State Power Corporation (PSPC) hopes to save around Rs 400 crore annually from this exercise by March 2011. However,the Corporation has so far managed to get only 20 per cent of the total of 66 lakh power meters outside the consumers premises. The process of accomplishing the task so far has not been smooth for the PSPCL staff. The plan to shift out power meters was initiated by the then Congress state government in 2004,but politics played its role in stalling the process. With the 2007 Assembly polls coming in the way,the erstwhile Punjab State Electricity Board had to stall the shifting of meters.PSPC Chairman K D Chaudhary told The Indian Express,There is no impediment to the shifting out of meters now and the work will be expedited. We plan to complete it by this financial year and have kept a deadline of March 2011 for the task. According to the new system,each consumer would continue to have an electronic power meter of his own but it would no longer be installed within his premises. Instead,the electronic meters would be installed on special pillars outside the premises of the consumer,in order to to avoid any kind of tampering. The move would help prevent power theft by consumers,as well as power losses,and the consumer would be charged from the outside point where his meter is installed. Also,in cases of colonies,the Corporation would instal one meter at the entry point of the colony and individual meters outside each consumers premises too. This would help check power losses as the Corporation would tally the total units on the outside meter and add up the individual meter billing to match the two. Chaudhary said that 800 million units of power can be saved once all the meters are shifted out of the consumers premises,which will result in total saving of about Rs 400 crore a year. Our aim is to accomplish this task before the onset of the next summer/ paddy season,which will help reduce losses and increase savings. The Corporations Director (Technical) Arun Verma stated that a total of 12 lakh new electronic power meters have been ordered for installation outside consumers premises. Besides,some of the already shifted-out meters will be replaced with new pillar boxes which will hold 15-16 meters together against the single-meter boxes installed at present, he informed. PSPC has now mainly targetted rural area meters,which comprise a whopping 32 lakh connections. Besides this,around 19 lakh urban area connections would also be shifted out by March,as per the plan. The shifting out of power meters had also earlier been ordered by the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) in its tarriff orders,as that would help reduce transmission losses and power theft. Sources added that about 50 villages in Punjab have turned out to be model villages,where all power meters have been converted to electronic form and have also been shifted out of the consumers premises.
