Centre pulls plug on smart meter project in Chandigarh

Dushyant Singh Pundir

Chandigarh, November 1

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has shelved the project to install smart electricity meters in the entire city.

The Central Government had approved Rs 241 crore in May last year for the installation of smart meters in the city under the smart grid project, but the work on the pilot project could not be completed due to the Covid pandemic.

After several extensions of the deadline, the UT Administration had finally completed the pilot project of installing smart electricity meters in the city in May this year.

Under the project, more than 24,000 smart meters had been installed in Sectors 29, 31, 47 and 48, Faidan, Ram Darbar, Hallo Majra, Raipur Kalan, Makhan Majra and Daria villages and Industrial Area, Phases 1 and 2.

The administration had planned to replace all electricity meters with smart ones in the entire city by the 2022-23 fiscal.

However, with the UT Electricity Department being privatised, the MHA has decided to halt the installation of smart meters in the remaining parts of the city.

The project for installing smart meters in the entire city was to be approved by the MHA, after which the work was to start, but the ministry took a U-turn as the UT Electricity Department was being privatised and the firm that would run the department would install the smart meters as per their requirement.

UT Chief Engineer CB Ojha said the MHA had recently withdrawn the project as the department was being privatised and, if required, the private firm would carry out further upgrade of infrastructure.

With installation of smart meters, the department does not need manual meter reading. Also, if someone tampers with a meter, the department immediately gets an alert.

The project was allotted to the government-owned Regional Electricity Corporation in 2018 and was to be completed by June 2020. But the project got delayed due to the pandemic and nearly 50 per cent of the work could be completed in October last year.

In August last year, Eminent Electricity Distribution Limited, a subsidiary of CESC Limited — the flagship company of RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group — had submitted the highest bid of Rs 871 crore. The amount was five times the reserve price of Rs 174 crore. Later, the Empowered Committee on privatisation of the UT Electricity Department gave its approval to the highest bid quoted by Eminent Electricity Distribution Limited.

However, on a petition filed by the UT Powermen Union, the Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed the process to privatise the functioning of the UT’s Electricity Department and the matter is sub judice.

24K already in place

• UT planned to replace all power meters with smart ones across the city by 2022-23 fiscal
• As part of pilot project, 24K meters were installed in various areas, including Sectors 29, 31, 47 and 48
• MHA has now decided to halt installation of smart meters in remaining parts due to privatisation of UT power dept
• It says powercom given reins of the department will install smart meters as per their requirement. Privatisation move is sub judice

Why the need

• There is no requirement for manual reading in smart meters
• Department gets alert in casea meter is tampered with