Culprit identified, STF to find out whether act intentional: EESL MD
LUCKNOW:Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) has claimed that it has already identified the culprit that sent multiple disconnection commands to smart meters, causing a blackout in around two lakh (200,000) houses in UP on August 12. The multiple commands led to bulk disconnection of smart meters across the state that day.
EESL is a central government-owned company implementing the Smart Meter National Programme (SMNP) in states.
“The agency is identified, the person is identified and the user ID is also identified. Now, the only thing that the UP police‘s Special Task Force (STF) investigating the issue has to find out is whether the command disconnecting power supply to smart meters was intentional or by mistake,” EESL managing director Saurabh Kumar told HT over the phone from Delhi.
He said L&T was responsible for the incident of the smart meter bulk disconnection because EESL had outsourced all back-end operations of the smart meter command centre in UP to it.
Kumar claimed that qualitywise smart meters were perfectly all right and aimed at reducing aggregate technical and commercial losses by curbing pilferage.
“Power to any smart meter can be disconnected remotely in the event of non-payment of bill,” he said, adding, “We have already installed around 12 lakh (1.2 million) smart meters in UP cities and will start installing another 40 lakh, once the bulk disconnection issue is settled,” he added.
EESL MD, in his letter to the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) management the same night (August 12), said a bulk disconnection command got issued on HES end of the system at 3.29 pm and the command was stopped by EESL intervention by 5pm though about 158,000 smart meters were disconnected in the process.
“The first-level Root Cause Analysis shows that while there were no instructions of any sort given to L&T to carry out any disconnection as it was a festival day, some unscrupulous event has been attempted from one user ID named upadminuser1 at 15.29 hours on HES. It was done by creating a voluminous group of probably all 12.2 lakh meters with the group name DCAB1 and multiple connect and disconnect
KUMAR CLAIMED THAT QUALITY-WISE SMART METERS WERE PERFECTLY ALL RIGHT AND AIMED AT REDUCING AGGREGATE TECHNICAL AND COMMERCIAL LOSSES BY CURBING PILFERAGE
commands were issued,” he said in the letter procured from
UPPCL (Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd) sources.
Kumar claimed now the company had taken precautions to avoid such incidents in future.
“The power connection cannot be disconnected from the smart meter without the final command by EESL or by UPPCL,” he said.
UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad chairman Awadhesh Kumar Verma said when the user ID and the agency were identified, there was no reason why the STF should have any problem in unraveling the mystery behind the bulk disconnections that caused so much inconvenience to lakhs of consumers on Janmasthami.
He also demanded the UP Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) to order compensation for the affected consumers.
“Contrary to claims, thousands of consumers remained without electricity for days together and the UPPCL must pay compensation all the consumers affected by disconnection even for an hour,” Verma demanded.