Energy Efficiency Services Ltd. (EESL), under ministry of power, government of India had put out a mega tender for procurement of 50 lakh smart meters.
The smart meters would help in reducing AT&C losses, power theft and also help in monitoring of round the clock power supply eventually leading to greater efficiency and 24X7 power for all.
The pre-bid meeting saw participation from 100 companies like smart meter manufacturers, system integrators and various other stakeholders including World Bank and telecom operators.
EESL will be making the entire upfront investment as well as maintain the whole infrastructure for the next ten years. This approach has made the project feasible as most of the state utilities are not in a position for such rollouts due to their financial constraints. EESL will recover its investment from the savings accruing to the DISCOMs in subsequent years.
The meters are being procured for implementation of smart grid projects in the states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. These meters will help these states in not only significantly reducing their AT&C losses way of increased billing efficiency, but will also completely change the way in which electrical energy is presently being consumed and paid for by the ordinary consumers.
In order to make the entire project feasible and affordable, EESL has unbundled the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) project into two parts viz. procurement of smart meter and arranging the system integrator. EESL is also planning to issue the tender for selection of system integrator early next month, as second part of the AMI project.
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