Barring farmers, all in Uttar Pradesh to have smart prepaid meters in next 3 years

Barring farmers, all other electricity consumers in Uttar Pradesh, like in most other states, will necessarily have prepaid smart meters on their premises in next two-three years with the facility of recharging these meters through a mobile phone under the Centre’s new Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme.

The Union power ministry has issued the office memorandum to states, explaining the scheme to them in detail and informing them of the terms and conditions required to avail the new initiative having a budgetary outlay of ₹3,03,758 crore.

“President’s sanction is conveyed for the implementation of the “Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme—A Reforms-based and Results-linked Scheme” with the objective of improving the quality and reliability of power supply to consumers through a financially sustainable and operationally-efficient distribution sector,” says the Office Memorandum received here by the chief secretary and the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) chairman offices, among others.

The scheme aims to reduce the AT&C losses to pan-India levels of 12-15% and average cost of supply (ACS)-average revenue realization (ARR) gap to zero by 2024-25.