Smart Meters Help TPDDL to Raise 3.5 Lakh Bills with Actual Readings amid Lockdown

With the help of smart meters installed at the customers’ premises, Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd (Tata Power-DDL or TPDDL), the distribution arm of Tata Power and Delhi Government, has managed to raise 3.5 lakh bills with actual readings instead of provisional ones amidst lockdown period between April and May 2020.

Through the installation of smart meters, it has prevented more than 1.5 lakh visits per month to consumer premises during the lockdown period.

In line with the Power Ministry’s vision of replacing existing 25 crore meters with smart meters across states and union territories, TPDDL has installed 2 lakh smart meters across its consumer segments i.e. domestic, industrial and commercial under its Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) project with Radio Frequency Canopy network, as per approval granted by the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC).

The company is supplying electricity to a populace of around 70 lakh in North Delhi, with a registered customer base of 17 lakh.

For the installation of smart meters, it is working in partnership with smart metering and smart grid solutions specialist Landis+Gyr, along with Siemens, a leader in power generation, transmission and distribution.

Speaking on the development, Ganesh Srinivasan, CEO of Tata Power-DDL, said that “Tata Power-DDL has always been proactively focused to become a fully digital and networked utility. With the shift to smart meters, we aim to bring about a revolution, engage and empower our consumers by providing them full control of their electricity consumption.”

He further added that “installation of smart meters is proving to be of great help during the ongoing pandemic as it provides a win-win platform for both the utility and the consumers through very tangible benefits such as remote meter reading, improving billing and collection efficiency, curbing power theft, reducing AT&C losses, incentivizing energy conservation and facilitating easy bill payments.”

The power distribution company said that it is also working with over 20 state distribution companies towards the vision of making them smart, resilient and financially viable through technology-driven initiatives.

Through this initiative, the consumers of the company are now benefitted as they can monitor their Maximum Demand Indicator (MDI) and Power Factor (PF) via ‘TPDDL Connect Mobile App’ on an almost real-time basis (at a gap of 4 hours) and cam maintain them in an efficient way while saving on fixed and energy charges. Now, close monitoring of MDI is also helping its customers save about 30 per cent on load violation charges beyond their sanctioned load.

Besides, the power Discom is also planning in coming days to provide customized alerts to consumers via SMS on MDI and PF variations so that consumers can maintain them on almost real-time basis against the current delay of up to 30 days (billing period) to reduce the energy charges.

In May this year, Saur Energy reported that some of the power distribution companies (Discoms) in Bihar are earning Rs 5 lakh per day prepaid revenue through EESL-led smart metering programme amidst nationwide lockdown where most of the Discoms are dealing with outstanding dues mainly on account of long-pending bill payments from their customers.