Agra power consumers to turn prepaid

With prepaid phones having a cost advantage over postpaid services, it's now time for electricity too to go from postpaid to prepaid in Agra.

Known to have adopted numerous approaches to cut power theft in a large area of Uttar Pradesh, stretching from Jhansi via Agra to the Kanpur zones, the UP power discom, Dakshinanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Ltd (DVVNL), has decided to do away with electricity billing for domestic and light commercial subscribers, turning these electricity connections from postpaid to prepaid.

For this, the corporation has tied up with Udaipur-based Secure Meters Ltd to provide special computerised prepaid meters.

The DVVNL has ordered 1,000 such meters for Rs 50 lakh to cover the commercial areas of Agra within this month and the remaining parts of the three distribution divisions will be targeted next.

Talking to Business Standard, Kirpal Singh, managing director, DVVNL, said power theft was a major problem in the state and to combat this, the DVVNL had decided to do away billing ordinary electricity customers, giving them an option to make their connections prepaid through the installation of special meters, to be put in place in a common meter-box with only the display and control-key unit accessible to the subscriber.

This way, he said, not only would the subscriber not be able to fiddle with the meter, a common practice here, he'd be able to buy a certain number of units through a prepaid coupon, to be fitted into the subscriber's meter through the control-key panel.

Once the purchased units are consumed, the meter will cut power supply to the subscriber, and the supply will resume after entering a 20-digit code into the meter.

To prevent any discomfort to the subscribers during holidays or nights, it has been ensured that power supply through the meter will not be interrupted during nights, gazetted holidays or Sundays, even if there is zero credit in the subscriber's account.

According to Singh, the company intends to convert its domestic and light-commercial power connections into prepaid throughout the three zones controlled by the DVVNL, which is expected to raise the company's revenue from its connections by at least Rs 13 crore a month through controlling power theft.

He said the corporation was running a pilot project in Agra's Sanjay Place Commercial complex, for which the company had purchased 1,000 such single-phase "Liberty" pre-payment meters from Secure Meters.

Negotiations are on for a further supply contract, should the pilot project be successful.