All electricity meters to be smart prepaid in 3 years: Minister

All electricity meters in India will become smart prepaid meters in the next three years, Union Power Minister R.K. Singh said on Thursday.

Addressing meter manufacturers at a meeting here, the Minister asked them to scale up manufacturing of smart prepaid meters as their demand is bound go up in the coming years, according to a Power Ministry statement.

"In the next 3 years, metering will go smart and gone will be the days of bills reaching your house. So, need of the hour is to scale up manufacturing of smart prepaid meters and to bring down their prices," the statement cited Singh as saying.

He also advised the ministry officials to consider making smart meters mandatory after a particular date.

"This will revolutionise the power sector by way of reduced AT&C (aggregate technical and commercial) losses, better health of discoms, incentivisation of energy conservation and ease of bill payments, etcetera," he said.

According to the ministry, smart metering will also generate employment for skilled youth.

The meeting discussed various aspects of smart meters like Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certification, compatibility with RF/GPRS and harmonisation with existing digital infrastructure, it added.

Power Secretary A.K. Bhalla, Additional Secretary Sanjiv Nandan Sahai and Joint Secretary Arun Kumar Verma were among the officials present in the meeting.

--IANS

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