Smart Metering project picks up speed, 15000 meters being installed per month: PDD

Jammu, Oct 27: The Power Development Department is all set to achieve the highest ever capacity addition in both the distribution and transmission sectors in the UT this year. A total of 1420 MVA at 132 kV level and 1595 MVA at 220 kV level in the transmission sectors was set to be added this financial year. In the distribution sector, over 100 sub stations were to be completed this year under various schemes adding over 500 MVA capacity to the system. This was revealed at a meeting chaired by Principal Secretary Power Development Department, Rohit Kansal to review the progress of various ongoing schemes in the UT.
The meeting was attended by Executive Director and CEO REC PDCL, R Lakshamanan, Executive Director Power Grid Kailash Rathore and other senior officers from Central PSUs besides Managing Directors and Chief Engineers of Transmission and Distribution Corporations of J&K.
‘Our collective objective should be to ensure 24×7 power supply to all the consumers of Jammu and Kashmir in the coming three years’, the Principal Secretary stated while addressing the officers of all Power Corporations and CPSUs.
Outlining in detail the vision of the department to provide uninterrupted quality power supply to entire Jammu & Kashmir by the year 2025, Rohit Kansal said adding that to achieve this, we need to have a vision and a detailed plan for the coming three years. For this he stressed on the need for a detailed system study along with random simulations, IT interventions including unification of billing softwares, energy accounting and 100 % metering and increasing billing and collection efficiencies through innovative solutions.
During the discussions, he stressed on system strengthening, financial stability of Corporations, resolving issues hampering the pace of projects, systematic improvements and augmentation of projects etc.
The Principal Secretary was apprised that the Smart Metering project in J&K has taken off well and nearly 15,000 meters are now being installed per month. The Principal Secretary directed that the pace of installation be accelerated so that the target of installation of 2 lakh smart meters by 2022 and 8 lakh meters by 2023 could be met well in time. He also asked the executing agencies to aim at achieving feeder-wise saturation while installing smart meters. He also directed that the DISCOMS should install 100% DT meters also so that energy accounting could be accurately carried out as a first step towards eliminating losses.
The Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) was also discussed in detail at the meeting. The Principal Secretary thanked the Ministry of Power for the generously funded scheme where 90% of the funds for strengthening the distribution system would be available as a grant to J&K. He urged the DISCOMS to take advantage of this grant and carry out detailed studies to identify bottlenecks in the system. ‘We have to address key issues which are at the root of seasonal power woes in Jammu and Kashmir regions’, he said and pressed on the need for survey of existing as well as new schemes to decide on the areas and sectors which need to be addressed at once. He advised RECPDCL to do a feeder wise energy accounting on behalf of the distribution companies. He also asked them to do a detailed system study and suggest the need for new additions as well as improvement and maintenance of existing networks. He also called for suggesting measures to reduce high HT/LT ratio.
The Principal Secretary maintained that all the measures being taken by the government are aimed at eliminating power losses and removing bottlenecks to uninterrupted and efficient power distribution in the region. Rohit Kansal called for unification of various automatic metering and billing systems in use and their unification for seamless transition to more efficient billing methodology.