Power Minister,
Shri Anant G. Geete has called for a total solution for metering,
meter reading, billing and collection. He said the products
should be flexible enough to communicate with other products
and software to enable integration, distribution management
and customer services. Shri Geete was speaking at a one-day
Workshop on ‘Metering, Billing and IT Applications’ which he
inaugurated here today. He expressed concern that T&D losses
continue being a major contributing factor for the deteriorating
financial health of state power utilities. The industry should
evolve a common communication protocol, standard product specification
and an open architecture system, he added. He emphasised the
need for innovative metering technologies including the need
for a low cost meters for hitherto unmetered agricultural customers.
He also expressed happiness that most of the states have accepted
the reform process. A number of States have signed MoUs for
achieving the reform milestone in a phased manner with Power
Finance Commission (PFC) support for fund requirements.
Earlier in his
keynote address, Power Secretary, Shri R.V.Shahi said that funding
organisations like PFC and REC will be liberal to State Electricity
Boards (SEBs) that demonstrate reviving commercial health. SEBs
need to take care of commercial needs as well as the needs of
the customers. He said while meter manufacturers have started
producing improved quality meters single-phase electronic meters
are priced high. Perhaps higher volumes in production can address
the issue. He also said remote meter reading is another issue
that needs attention. Shri Shahi said that 70 per cent of commercial
problems of the utilities revolve around the meter.
The Workshop organised
by Power Finance Corporation Limited will address latest technologies
available for metering, innovative metering technologies, pricing
trends for metering, supporting IT infrastructure in the metering
and billing. Quality of metering assets would be of great concern
to the utilities who are undertaking their expansion in metering
programme and enhance their revenue collections.
