BENGALURU: Pay and use may become the maxim in the power supply sector too. Apartment complexes with more than 200 units and industries may have the option of buying prepaid meters in future. The move proposed by Bescom aims to benefit residents who stay out of home for long and wonder why they should pay the power bill.
“At present, even when consumers are not using electricity, they end up paying maintenance charges via postpaid meters. Once prepaid meters are installed, residents can buy power when required and needn’t pay maintenance fee,” said N Rajendra Cholan, managing director, Bescom. A prepaid meter is expected to cost Rs 4,000-5,000.
The proposed system will help solve problems of power pilferage, meter tampering, revenue leakage and will help manage peak- hour crisis. The project was recently started on a pilot basis in the Indiranagar subdivision, where old meters were replaced with prepaid ones. Changing meters for 2,500 connections in Indiranagar has augmented Bescom’s revenues by 30%.
“Sanctioned load in some cases is different from actual usage. Even the problem of tampered metres can be tackled through prepaid meters,” officials said. Bescom is in talks with the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) to take forward the proposal.
Courtsey:Â Sunitha Rao R | TNN | Â April 20, 2017