Conventional electricity meters in houses to be replaced with digital ones

Houses with over 500 units consumption being covered

A digital meter being fixed by Tangedco staff in Krishnagiri.— Photo: N.Bashkaran

Digitisation of household meters is picking up pace, with Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) expediting the process of replacing the conventional electro-mechanical meters with electronic meters.

The Tangedco is purchasing over 1,000 to 2,000 meters every month initially for households with a power consumption of 500 units and above.

The digitisation process will help align power transmission at the sending end - from the sub-station - and at the tail end of consumption. This will help gauge transmission loss beyond the acceptable limits.

S.Govindaraju, Executive Engineer of Tangedco, told

The Hindu that the conventional electromechanical meters were subject to friction and tampering.

“With electronic meters, theft of energy can be eliminated. At the user end, every milli watt consumed is billed eliminating discrepancies between usage and tariff.”

The digitalisation process is undertaken under the Central Government’s Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme.

Under the programme, 20,000 households are targeted for coverage. The remaining of the total 1.5 lakh households in Krishnagiri town are proposed to be covered under State Government funds. Similarly, installation of electronic meters is being expedited in Hosur town.

All new service connections have been given electronic meters for over a year now. As for rural areas of Pochampalli and Kaveripattinam, including town panchayats, a similar proposal, but under the Integrated Power Development Scheme, is floated for implementation in a phased manner.

The static electronic meters retain the usage record of 6 months at any given time.

In the event of any defect in the meter, the common meter reading instrument helps retrieve the data from the meter and upload it in the computer for reference, according to Mr. Govindaraju.

Similarly, single pole transformers with a minimum of 16 KVA for minimum population and double pole transformers for 40 KVA capacity are being set up to cut down transmission loss, says Mr.Govindaraju.

Here, as many as 497 transformers are proposed and of these 100 such transformers have already been commissioned.