MOOTS PREPAID ENERGY METERING SYSTEM
Amidst looming power crisis due to shortage of coal in thermal power plants across the country, the Department of Power Nagaland (DoPN) has appealed to power consumers to conserve energy as it was unthinkable to survive or move ahead in any aspect without electricity.
This message was contained in a press communiqué from Executive Engineer, Dimapur Electrical Division Er. Y Akito Sema. He pointed out that Nagaland has a meagre generating capacity of 26.54 MW and thus, there was no alternative but to conserve energy.
He also mentioned that the domestic consumption of power in Nagaland accounted for approximately 80% and so the need for domestic energy conservation at all level was the need of the hour. Er. Akito further said that the present inefficient revenue collection and high customer debt burden in Nagaland was due to illegal and rampant use of power by means of theft of energy in the form of hooking, tampering of energy meters and by-passing of energy meters.
He also illustrated another major factor affecting the department such as – energy losses and growing customer dissatisfaction due to erroneous meter reading or no meter reading; estimated/wrong billing and abysmal service delivery leading to heavy loss in the revenue collection.
In view of the above, Er.Akito said the department was left with no option but shift the present post-paid metering policy to prepaid meters in order to tackle myriad problems faced by both the DoPN and the consumers.
He said adoption of pre-paid metering, especially the prepaid smart meters, benefitted not only in the revenue collection aspects but various other benefits including carbon emission reductions, efficient and transparent energy management services, energy savings, elimination of estimated billing and reduced home visits.
With energy consumption under consumer’s control, he said the life of electrical appliances/gadgets was expected to rise. In addition, the EE, Dimapur Electrical Division said the burden on the distribution transformers would be greatly reduced and reduce power outages caused due to fuse getting blown off. It would also help reduce the need for frequent maintenance of distribution transformers and the distribution network.
Highlighting the benefits of prepaid metre, Er.Akito said it would allow customer to buy electricity as and when required besides do away with standing in long queues for paying electricity bills.
He said the prepaid system would also empower customers to understand the cost of energy and enable them to budget their usage in accordance with their financial position and lifestyle.
Further, Er.Akito said that prepaid meters, which had the provision to display the actual remaining money value as well as total kwh consumption, would put consumers in the position to manage their energy purchase to suit their requirements.
In this regard, the EE, Dimapur Electrical Division has sought the support and cooperation of the consumers in this transition of pre-paid energy metering system to improve power stability by saving energy and avoid problem of wrong billing and poor bill delivery system.