The Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) has approved a petition filed by Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd. (UPPCL) regarding the rollout of smart meters in the state.

The UPPCL had submitted that it was going to install smart meters for urban high-end customers and for the remaining consumers, these smart meters will be installed later in a phased manner.

UPPCL has roped in Energy Efficiency Service Limited (EESL) for the installation of smart meters due to their expertise in low cost bulk procurement and working as demand aggregators. EESL will make upfront capital investment and recover it in long-term out of the gains of the project on OPEX basis.

UPPCL has selected meter suppliers and system integrators through international competitive bidding. L&T has been selected as the system integrator, while Genus, ITI, Zen and Koenics Meter have been chosen for supply of meters. Moreover, HCL and Fluent Grid have been selected as the billing system implementing agencies.

UPPCL is targeting 4 million consumers across five distribution companies (DISCOMs). In Phase-I, smart meters will be installed in towns with high energy input >500 million units (MUs) and high AT&C losses. In Phase-II, towns with energy input >=250 MU will be benefited and in Phase-III, towns with energy input >=150 MU and <250 MU will be benefited.

While examining the petition and subsequent submissions made by the UPPCL, UPERC opined that installation of smart meters is a national program and has resulted in benefits to the consumers as well as DISCOMs.

UPERC accepted UPPCL’s smart meter roll-out plan and asked UPPCL to incorporate a few pointers for the implementation. UPERC asked UPPCL to ensure smart meters conform to standards set by the Ministry of Power and Central Electricity Authority (CEA).

UPERC has also asked UPPCL to submit progress of the installation of smart meters on a quarterly basis once the plan is rolled out.

EESL, a joint venture of the public-sector units of the Ministry of Power and the Government of India, has joined states with many states in the country to facilitate their transition to energy efficient devices. Soon, Uttar Pradesh’s neighbor Bihar also signed an agreement with EESL to deploy smart meters in 130 towns and adjacent rural areas covering approximately 1.8 million customers in the state.

Recently, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) successfully completed the pilot phase of its satellite-based smart meter project in a village in Varanasi in which 5,000 households received the meters.