Ramkrishan Upadhyay
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, October 19
In the next two years, city residents will be able to get the facility of prepaid electricity meters. The service will be similar to recharging of mobile phones. Prepaid meters can be recharged as per the requirement of the users. Recharge coupons will be available from as low as Rs 100 to Rs 7,000.
After a delay of over two years, Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (RECL) has allotted the work of the smart grid project to M/s Analogics Limited on behalf of the UT Administration.
Under the project worth Rs 28 crore, 30,000 traditional meters will be replaced with smart meters in the Industrial Area, Phase I and II, Ram Darbar, Sector 29, 31, 47 and 48, Raipur Kalan, Hallo Majra, Behlana and Daria.
An officer of the department said the smart meters would have the pre-paid facility.
A control room will be set up at the UT Press building in Sector 18 to manage the supply to the area online on a real-time basis. The smart meters will send tamper alerts immediately to the control room in case somebody tries to fiddle with these. These will also have remote power shut-off capability.
Through the control room, it will be possible to keep tabs on the daily individual consumption. If any consumer tries to tamper with the meter or draw electricity more that the sanctioned load, his connection will be snapped immediately. The new system will not only improve the electricity supply, stop leakage and check theft, but will also help in reducing transmission losses.
To check overloading, a system will be installed at the transformer, which will not allow consumers to draw more electricity than the sanctioned capacity.
Due to overloading, transformers get burnt at times during the summer. The new system will check this. MP Singh, Superintending Engineer of the Electricity Department, said after completing the project on a pilot basis in the Industrial Area, it will be replicated all over the city.
Similar to mobile recharging
The service will be similar to recharging of mobile phones. Prepaid meters can be recharged as per the requirement of the users. Recharge coupons will be available from as low as Rs 100 to Rs 7,000. After a delay of over two years, Rural Electrification Corporation Limited has allotted the work of the smart grid project to M/s Analogics Limited on behalf of the UT Administration.