Disconnecting supply by remote control

Panel chaired by CEA chief wants discoms to implement this 'smart' technology for any default on bills or tampering with meter readings

A committee of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has asked that power distribution companies (discoms) switch to ‘smart’ technology for remote disconncection or reconnection of supply to any consumer.

Such technology is readily available; with it, one does not need a lineman to go and physically switch on or off the power. With ‘smart’ meters, a conusmer defaulting on a bill would simply have the supply disconnected through, in effect, remote control. The same thing would be done if the meter is tampered; the meter can be automatically programmed to do so.

The recommendations have come form a panel chaired by the Central Electricity Authority chairman, A S Bakshi, himself. It was appointed by the Union power ministry in December last year.

The report was given recently, after reviewing the functional specifications of low-cost single-phase smart metres, framed by an earlier committee.

Given the way it changes the rules in a basic manner, the Bakshi panel suggests as awareness campaign for consumers be done before before these smart meters with the facility of remote connect/disconnect are installed at consumer premises.

“This will be a major step for further modernisation of consumer service in the electricity sector. This will allow automatic control over consumer meters and force greater accountability,” said Shantanu Dixit, member, energy group, at Prayas, a Pune-based non-government body.

At present, under the Electricity Act of 2003, a licensee can after giving 15 days notice in writing, disconnect supply to any defaulting consumer. With the new technology, the switch-off command can be issued and implemented from far away.

“This feature in the meter is to be used by the utility only as a last resort. The procedure for disconnection in terms of serving a legal notice to the erring consumer would remain the same... (only) a special lineman need not be sent to the site by the utility for disconnection and restoration,” the committee suggested.

Further, in the present system, the consumer’s supply cannot be disconnected on account of violation of the sanctioned load (SL) limit. Some utilities have adopted the practice of charging a penalty on account of SL violation in the next billing cycle. If the breach continues, the consumer is shifted to a higher category of SL.

If the facility for remote connect/disconnect is in the meter, the utility can remotely program the smart meters on the SL. The committee felt a buffer of, say, up to 25 per cent beyond the SL be kept; if the consumer load exceeded this, the meter latching relay shall disconnect automatically. It will have a reconnection mechanism for activation once the load is below the SL threshold.

Also, there will be provision for remotely upgrading upgrading the SL limit to a higher bracket.

The Bakshi committee also looked into the issue of integrating the smart meter with other services such as gas and water and made some observations on how to go about this.

SMART METERING

• Utility to have ease of operation to switching off the consumer load remotely
• Deployment of extra linesmen will be avoided
• Smart meter to have a reconnection mechanism
• Integration of smart meter with gas and water possible but not in near future as percentage of metered gas connections in India at present is also very less