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Smart meters: Despite concerns UPPCL resumes installation
The UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) has resumed installation of hi-tech smart meters two years after it stopped installation abruptly due to an increasing number of complaints about these meters
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The UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) has resumed installation of hi-tech smart meters two years after it stopped installation abruptly due to an increasing number of complaints about these meters. Interestingly, even the corporation is yet to be satisfied about the quality of the new meters.
Officials aware of the development said the installation of 4-G smart prepaid meters (earlier they were 3-G) had begun with the KESCO with the corporation having the target of installing 50 lakh such meters across the state in coming months.
“The UPPCL has resumed meter installation work without being satisfied with the quality of the new meters. The corporation has flagged some functional problems in the new meters but the Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL), a Central government enterprise that had bought meters for UP, has not addressed the corporation’s concerns,” an official said.
In a letter to the director, ESSL on June 26, UPPCL director (commercial), Amit Kumar Srivastav said that some functional problems had been detected in the BSI-certified meters during their lifecycle. He further said that the EESL was conducting a stress test to rule out such possibilities.
In a reminder letter to the ESSL on August 18, Srivastav said, “We had requested the EESL to make the stress report available to us but the desired action is still awaited.”
Raising questions over the resumption of installation of smart meters without the ESSL making the test report available, UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad chairman Avdhesh Kumar Verma said there was no logic for the UPPCL to go ahead till it was fully satisfied about the quality of these meters.
“Two years ago, the UPPCL had to stop meter installation work when around 50,000 hi-tech meters got automatically disconnected leaving consumers in many cities without power,” he said. “Now, the UPPCL must not install new meters till the EESL addresses the concerns raised by it (UPPCL),” Verma demanded.
