Srinagar: In a significant decision aimed at reducing AT&C losses in the Power sector and improving metering, the State Administrative Council (SAC), which met here Wednesday under the chairmanship of Governor, N N Vohraaccorded sanction to the engagement of the Rural Electricity Corporation Power Distribution Company Limited (RECPDCL) as PIA on nomination basis for (i) procurement and installation of 9.25 lakh electronic meters in the rural and urban areas of the state, sanctioned under PMDP, DDUGJY and IPDS, at an estimated cost of Rs 282.15 crore, (ii) O&M Services for the upkeep and Maintenance of Consumer Metering in rural and urban areas, at an estimated cost of Rs 44.53 crore (iii) managing Meter Reading and Bill Generation in rural and urban areas, at an estimated cost of Rs 61.32 crore and (iv) procurement and installation of 2 Lakh Smart Meters in towns / urban areas of the State, at an estimated cost of Rs 126.54 crore.
The SAC also accorded approval to the engagement of Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) for execution of Smart Grid Project in J&K at an estimated cost of Rs.140.55 crore. The Smart Grid Project will have attributes like Substation Automation System (SAS), Smart Collection Mechanism (SCM), Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), Outage Management System (OMS), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) System and Peak Load Management (PLM). PGCIL is being entrusted the job of execution of Smart Grid project for 19 towns/industrial areas in the State.
Pertinent to mention is that the proposal was placed before the SAC earlier. The SAC had decided that the proposal be examined by a Committee comprising Advisor incharge PDD and Administrative Secretaries of Finance, Planning and Power Development Departments particularly in regard to providing the contract to the Central PSU(S) and also examining the utilization of existing manpower in meter reading operations.
Following the recommendations of the Committee, the SAC accorded approval to the proposal including the recommendation that the services of existing 341-meter readers shall be utilized for overall supervision of the metering activities to be tendered out by RECPDCL to the Private Agency and that the Power Development Department shall devise a strategy for utilizing their services in a better way.
The State is presently faced with the challenge of reducing high level of AT&C losses, which have been at 60% during the financial year 2016-17. This high percentage of AT&C losses is one of the reasons for continuance of gap between demand and supply.
The reduction of AT&C losses is not only essential for revenue realization but is equally important for providing reliable and quality power to all categories of consumers. The vision of Government is to accomplish 24X7 Power for all by 2019 in a time bound manner which cannot be accomplished unless 100% consumer metering is achieved.
