Power secretary pitches for reducing cost of smart meters for affordability

The government on Thursday asked smart meter makers to bring down the cost of the device to make it more affordable.

Power Secretary Alok Kumar said safety, quality and design should be the key parameters for manufacturing of smart meters.

"I urge the manufacturers to think of innovative ways to reduce the price of the meters to half without compromising on quality. We have improved the loss reduction aspect and are working on the expansion of RDSS scheme and smart distribution," Kumar said while addressing industry body IEEMA's '9th Metering India 2022' event here.

Besides, IEEMA should focus on capacity building of the utilities and finding opportunities to change conventional meters into smart meters with sustainable disposing option, he said.

As per industry estimates, a smart meter costs around USD 50, including manufacturing and installation charges.

Around 25 crore smart prepaid metres are to be installed by March 2025 under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) at an outlay of Rs 3.3 lakh crore.

Amit Kumar, Chairman of IEEMA Meter Division and Vice President of Schneider Electric India Pvt Ltd, said the combined annual production capacity of the Indian meter industry is more than 100 million smart meters which is sufficient to meet the 2025 target.

"These new age smart meters help reduce the operation and maintenance cost, and enhance the quality of service. Metering is an important infrastructure for the country." Jitendra K Agarwal, Joint MD of Genus Power and Chairman Elecrama 2022, said.

The Indian Electrical & Electronics Manufacturers' Association (IEEMA) has around 1,000 member organisations across the entire value chain in power generation, transmission and distribution, equipment, and electronic goods. Elecrama is part of IEEMA.