Jammu and Kashmir: KPDCL begins installation of smart meters in Srinagar

According to KPDCL officials, the corporation has started installation of smart energy meters in uptown areas of Srinagar.

So far, the work has been started in Peerbagh area of Srinagar city.

“Installation of smart meters and replacing electric wires with insulated wires will prove game-changer for Kashmir’s power scenario as we are projecting after installation of these meters power pilferage will be nil which will result in judicious use of the electricity, which unfortunately is not the case currently,” a senior official said adding currently there is shortfall of 750 megawatts of power during peak hours in Kashmir division.

Speaking to Greater Kashmir, Chief Engineer KPDCL, Aijaz Ahmad Dar said that the power corporation is aiming to install 57,500 smart meters in the first phase in Srinagar.

He said that apart from installing meters in some areas, the corporation is also doing the Proof of Concept (POC) of the meters supplied to the KPDCL.

“We need to check whether the meter supplied has all those specifications, which have been deliberated to ensure judicious use of the electricity,” he said.

“We will target certain areas of Srinagar first and the entire city will be covered in one and a half years. After Srinagar, we will install smart meters in district headquarters and rural areas and Kashmir,” he said.

Officials informed that smart meters will bring about transparency in metering, billing and collection which will eventually reduce power losses and ensure quality and reliable power supply to consumers.

The officials said the consumers can recharge the smart meters in the same manner as mobile phones are recharged, thus eliminating the requirement of manual meter-reading and paper bill distribution.

The meters will be read remotely in the data centre at Srinagar and data recovery centre at Jammu through communication channels, which will also facilitate the distribution corporations to know the status of power supply at the consumer end and take prompt action in case there is power interruption due to system faults or some other reason.

Last month the government announced that it will begin installing smart meters in twin cities of Jammu and Srinagar under the first phase from November 15.

Sanctioned under Prime Minister Development Programme (PMDP) the government had announced that 20,000 meters would be installed in the twin cities in the first phase and the process would continue in a phased manner till the entire two lakh meters is installed. RECPDCL, which is the project implementing agency (PIA) as per the officials have already procured the meters and has identified the households in the uptown areas of Srinagar to be installed with these meters.