Jharkhand: JBVNL begins installation of smart meters in Ranchi

Ranchi: The long awaited smart electricity meter project in the state finally got underway from Ranchi as the Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (JBVNL) began free installation of the smart gadgets from Upper Bazar area from Tuesday.
Smart meters will weed out issues of inflated/delayed bills, besides complaints of other irregularities. Customers can also track usage in real time for anytime payment, officials said.
Initially, the discom is installing 1,000 smart meters and has set a target to cover all 3.5 lakh legitimate power consumer households in the capital’s urban area in next eight months. Gradually, it will be extended in other cities too, officials added.
Talking to TOI, P K Srivastava, JBVNL’s general manager of Ranchi circle, said, “Although we are delayed by a few months, installation of smart electricity meters formally commenced from today. Different teams have been pressed to get the installation of about 1,000 meters in the first phase.”
A private firm — Genus power ltd — has been outsourced the job. Earlier, the project was to get rolled in July which later got pushed to August this year.
“Any new thing takes time. It consumed time as the meters were getting technically evaluated before formal roll out,” he said, underlining that customers don’t have to pay for the meters. “Consumers should be aware that they don’t have to pay for smart meters,” he stressed.
Citing how smart meters will help both JBVNL and consumers, he said, “It will make billing more easy as all readings can be done on real-time basis even by the consumers. At present, our staff need to take the readings manually from everywhere before tabulating the bills. At times, many complain of wrong readings, inflated bills or other issues. All those will be over now.”
Elaborating on other positives, another official added, “It will have prepaid SIM just like a phone, where consumer can recharge as per their usage need. This apart, rigging in the meters will be curbed out. The metres will be safeguarded through special anti-hacker software.”