If the experiment is successful, the smart meter system will be implemented across the state," Bharat Pawar, spokesperon for the Energy Ministry, told The Indian Express on Wednesday. (Representational image)
In a significant step, the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL), has decided to introduce smart meters on an experimental basis for domestic consumers.
The move comes after directions were given by Energy Minister Nitin Raut. “We will soon install smart meters in the homes of domestic consumers in major cities like Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur and Aurangbad. This will be done on an experimental basis. If the experiment is successful, the smart meter system will be implemented across the state,” Bharat Pawar, spokesperon for the Energy Ministry, told The Indian Express on Wednesday.
Explaining how the smart meter concept will help consumers, Pawar said, “With smart meters, a system similar to the prepaid/postpaid system used for cellphones will take effect. Consumers can recharge their meters using the MSEDCL app. They will be able to control their consumption of electricity…”
The meters currently in use sometimes develop faults, which leads to consumers facing overbilling or underbilling, which also results in loss to the state undertaking, Pawar said. “But in smart meters, these problems are weeded out. This is because consumers are billed only for the units consumed,” he added.
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MSEDCL officials said the move could be a gamechanger as power thefts and associated losses will be brought down. “The biggest gain will be in terms of arrears, which are pending in crores with all categories of consumers. The consumers will not have to pay the bills but can recharge their meters as per their requirement. They will get what they want and we won’t have huge arrears pending, which is what is happening currently,” Pawar said.
The MSEDCL earns Rs 4,500 crore every month from power bills and other revenue sources. “But we are hardly left with any profit as we have to pay salaries of staff, purchase power from companies, look after the maintenance aspects and carry out other necessary tasks. Our biggest defaulters are farmers, many of whom have not paid for years despite hefty concessions given to them,” an official said.
Pawar said no policy decision has been taken whether to make smart meters optional or compuslory.
“First, the tenders will be floated. Then new consumers will be urged to install smart meters and then we will verify the results. Only if the trial run is successful will we take a policy decision. As of now, we also face the problem of availablity of stock of smart meters as very few companies are involved in making them. We are encouraged by the fact that the smart meter system is being implemented in several countries,” he said.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
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