NDMC’S smart meter project to become operational by Nov-end

NEW DELHI: New Delhi Municipal Council’s (NDMC) ambitious ‘smart’ electricity meter project is likely to become operational by November-end, senior officials said. These meters would be able to communicate with distribution companies and would let consumers have basic controls from a mobile application.

The app will help people switch on or off their meters if they are out of station.

“There is no need for meter readers to visit each household for reading monthly consumption. With the help of GPRS technology, reading any electricity meter can be done sitting at NDMC’S headquarters,” said Naresh Kumar, chairman of NDMC.

The civic agency aims to bring down aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses by way of smart metering, which they said would “increase billing efficiency”.

“Smart meters are designed to give real-time information about energy usage. It will also enable consumers to monitor their consumption pattern and the corresponding cost, helping them control their energy use and reduce power wastage,” said a senior NDMC official.

As of now, the civic agency is supplying electricity to 60,000 households. The council had already completed installing smart meters at 30,000 households. Other places will be covered by this month end.

“The smart meters at 30,000 household are being run on trial basis. The purpose is to understand the functioning and remove flaws before making the project fully operational. The project also includes launch of a mobile app and website which users can use to check details related to bill payment, pending dues, consumption anytime,” the official said.

From Monday, every household under NDMC area will get a fridge magnet through which they would be able to pay their electricity and water bills online. These refrigerator magnets will have QR codes, which can be scanned through a cellphone, officials said. “As soon as one scans the smiley magnet on the phone, it will automatically direct the user to the online payment gateway,” said an official from NDMC’S IT department.