PANAJI
Power Minister Ramakrishna Dhavalikar has informed the State Legislative Assembly that the installation of smart meters, replacing the existing electronic power meters, will commence from December, this year. Interestingly, the cost of the meters would be recovered from the consumers through power tariffs.
Dhavalikar said that the Letter of Award is being issued to Digismart Networks Pvt Ltd (lead consortium member) and CWD Ltd (consortium member). The total cost of the project is Rs 890 crore.
“The project implementation plan is under finalisation along with collection of data required for the execution of the project. The actual installation of smart meters will be commenced by December, 2025,” he said in a written reply tabled on the Floor of the House.
Dhavalikar said that the Advanced Metering Infrastructure Service provider will be paid on a per meter per month basis and the same will be recovered from the consumers through tariffs.
Stating that it is a centrally sponsored scheme, with gross budgetary support of Rs 70.11 cr from the Centre and Rs 820 cr from the State, Dhavalikar said that the State component is to be paid over the period of 93 months after completion of the project.
At the same time, the department has identified a total 39,894 electricity meters for relocations and that the cost of shifting/ relocation of energy meters should entirely be borne by the consumer.
Smart metering project implementation is based on the Design-Build-Finance-Own-Operate-Transfer (DBFOOT) model.
CWD will provide the wireless IoT modules while Digismart will handle ground-level deployment. The project will be executed within a period of 27 months.
The project is to be implemented in OPEX mode for 93 months, excluding an execution period, and the company is responsible for the supply, installation, testing, and commissioning of the smart metering infrastructure along with operation and maintenance for this duration.
According to the Electricity Department, smart meters function on a real-time basis and record and store all electrical parameters such as consumption of energy, voltage and current levels, etc. The data will be used by the department for billing, to monitor power quality, load scheduling, demand management and fault analysis.
