A 100 companies have participated in a pre-bid meeting for the tender for 50 lakh Smart Meters called by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL). An official statement said that the Smart Meters are being procured for Smart Grid projects in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. These meters would help in reducing Aggregate Technical & Commercial losses, power theft and also help in monitoring of round the clock power supply eventually leading to greater efficiency.
EESL will be making the upfront investment and will maintain the infrastructure for ten years. An official statement said that this approach has made the project feasible as most of the state utilities are not in a position for such rollouts due to their financial constraints. EESL will recover its investment from the savings accruing to the DISCOMs in subsequent years. Installation of these meters will obviate the need for the meter reader’s visit to each and every consumer.
The statement added, in order to make the entire project feasible and affordable, EESL has unbundled the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) project into two parts viz. procurement of smart meter and arranging the system integrator. EESL is also planning to issue the tender for selection of system integrator early next month, as second part of the AMI project.