Now, power your house with recharge coupons

It seems that the concept of 'prepaid' is fast catching up with the various service providers. After prepaid phones, it is now the turn of prepaid electricity to enter the consumer market.

The Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) has come out with a unique offer to power consumers "� purchase electricity in advance to avoid hassles like disconnection due to non-payment of bills or disputes over erroneous billing.

All that the consumer has to do is install a prepaid meter with a special card (similar to mobile phone SIM cards) at his residence and charge it using recharge coupons issued by Bescom through various vendors.

"The mechanism of recharging the electricity meter is more or less like recharging currency on the mobile phone. It is a user-friendly mechanism. We intend to roll out the offer in a couple of months in select localities of Bangalore," Bescom director (technical) Vasanth Kumar told Business Standard.

Karnataka is the second state in the nation after West Bengal to offer prepaid power. The recharge coupons will be available in denominations ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,000. Consumers can periodically check the status of power consumed and recharge it depending on the requirement.

"There will be no change in the tariff. For now, the prepaid power is an optional scheme since it is yet to be approved by the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC)," Kumar pointed out.

In an effort to popularise the prepaid electricity scheme, Bescom plans to offer incentive to the consumers. However, a final decision in this regard can be taken only after KERC approves the scheme.

One incentive that Bescom is looking at is that of exempting consumers from paying the deposit amount (Rs 2,000 for households) for shifting from postpaid to prepaid meters. In case the consumer shifts to the new scheme, the deposit paid at the time of obtaining the connection will be adjusted towards the recharge coupon.

He noted that the advantages of prepaid power are numerous. From the consumers' point of view, one need not stand in the queue to pay the bills. For Bescom, it will reduce the unauthorised use of power. Besides, the prepaid system will assist power conservation and efficiency in consumption, Kumar added.

Kumar claimed that many of the consumers are willing to shift to the prepaid system. Earlier this year, Bescom had installed prepaid meters on a trial basis in a few select homes in Jayanagar in Bangalore.

"The response was tremendous. Consumers will have a day-to-day account of power consumption. They may in fact opt for reduced usage of power to save costs," he said.

Apart from households, Bescom will target construction projects for prepaid meters. Almost all house and apartment builders obtain temporary electricity connection during construction.

Many a time, it is found that power is drawn unauthorisedly from the neighbouring house at the construction site. To put an end to all such unscrupulous practices, prepaid meters will be installed at such sites.