While Smart Prepaid Meter has already been installed in many cities of our country, Bihar was the first state to install it on trial basis in some select areas and houses of Arwal and Muzaffarpur. The central agency Energy Efficiency Service Limited has taken the responsibility to install these Smart Prepaid Meters in the state and so far they have installed more than 20 thousand meters in the state. Now recently, The agency has filed a petition to Bihar Electricity Regulatory Commission seeking permission to install these meters in more cities. In the petition they ask to install 23.5 Lakh Smart Prepaid meters in the state in a year. Earlier the count was 18 Lakh.
These Smart Prepaid meters are said to be installed in Rural and Urban areas giving connection to the regular consumers, Farmers for Agriculture, and Tap water connection. The agency has said that, out of these 23.5 Lakh Smart Prepaid Meter, 19.8 Lakh connections are of single phase, 4.28 Lakh connections are of three phase and the remaining 14 thousand connections are for Agriculture and Tap water connection.
In the petition filed, the agency has also said that to install a Single Phase connection it costs them Rs. 2503, for Three Phase connection the cost is Rs. 3634 whereas for the CTPT connection the cost is Rs. 3424. Also, per meter box cost them Rs. 231. Beside installing Smart Prepaid Meters for this estimated 1 Thousand Crore project, the agency also promises to monitor these meters for 78 months.
So far, Smart Prepaid meters has already been installed in select cities and area of the state, the name of which I have mentioned below.
Cities and Areas in Bihar where Smart Prepaid Meter has already been Installed
- Begusarai
- Teghra
- Rosda
- Areraj
- Chakia
- Motihari
- Bettiah
- Some Neighbourhoods in Patna, Arwal and Muzaffarpur
Smart Prepaid Meter Installation Comes free of Cost
To install these meters in place of the existing regular meter, a consumer won’t have to pay any fee. Under the supervision of the engineers of the power company, workers of EDF India Private limited company are going to install these meters. After installing the Smart Prepaid Meter, the power company will then recover the cost of the previous meter in 10 months from the consumer in installments. Now, coming to recharging the Smart Prepaid Meter, One can recharge it either from the company’s billing counter, Bihar Electricity Smart Prepaid Meter App or PayTm.
Via: LiveHindustan