The Union Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy has informed that to avoid post-implementation operational issues and to ensure hand-holding support to DISCOMS, the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) guidelines mandate the roll-out of smart meters through PPP (Public Private Partnership) on TOTEX (total expenditure) mode. The implementation of Smart Metering in TOTEX mode makes this component self-financing and the DISCOM will not have to pay upfront for the capital expenditure on the same. As smart metering is a new technology    and    many   Discoms   may    not   have   technical   expertise  for operation and maintenance of the smart metering system, hence, the AMISP (Advanced Metering Infrastructure Service Provider) will be responsible for supplying, maintaining and operating the metering infrastructure post-installation and will be paid for a portion of its capital expenditure initially & the remaining payment would be paid during the O&M period (7-10 years) on per meter per month basis, which is linked with performance. This approach ensures end-to-end responsibility of AMISP for delivery of services during the entire life cycle of the project.

Prepaid Smart metering for consumers and System metering at Feeder and Distribution Transformer level with communicating feature along with associated Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) will be done to facilitate automatic energy accounting as well as auditing.

Energy accounting / timely collection of govt. dept. dues etc. are essential for improving operational & financial efficiency of DISCOM; accordingly prepaid smart metering project for Govt. departments and system meters have been envisaged to be undertaken on priority in DISCOM as per RDSS guidelines.

Data gathered as part of the two-way communication in a smart metering solution will help utilities to improve their load forecasting, which will help them in optimizing their power procurement thereby reducing the cost of power supply. The direct impact of this feature will be on reducing the ACS-ARR gap and AT&C losses due to improvement in Billing & Collection efficiency of the DISCOM which will ultimately benefit end consumer. Further, a smart meter captures consumption pattern and provides real-time information to consumers to plan their usage of electricity.

The contour, concepts and components of the scheme including key dimensions of the roll out strategy of smart metering implementation were discussed in detail with States/ DISCOMs in Review Planning and Monitoring (RPM) meeting of power sector held on 09.01.2020. Further, various aspects of the scheme were again discussed during the Power Minister’s conference held on 3rd July 2020.

Government of Kerala has proposed an alternate model of implementation of Smart Meters, which was reviewed in the Ministry and thereafter the Government of Kerala have been requested to submit the detailed proposal along with the implementation and roll out plan so that it can be examined from all aspects, considering the extant guidelines of the scheme.

This information has been given by the Union Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy Shri R. K. Singh, in a written reply to a question, in Lok Sabha on December 14, 2023.

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