Government Plans To Move On To Smart Electricity Meters By 2022 Minimising Human Intervention And Theft

As per the government's draft electricity distribution plan prepared by the Chief Electrical Authority (CEA), the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi aims to convert all electricity meters across the country to smart prepaid ones by 2022, reports Livemint.

The plan comes at a time when the government has been trying to supply 24x7 power to all Indian power consumers. In this respect, the smart meters are expected to minimise the human intervention in the process of metering, billing and collection, thus reducing theft of power.

It should be noted that the draft perspective plan on electricity distribution is the first such plan drawn up by the CEA. Before, the perspective plans were only prepared for electricity generation and transmission sectors.

This comes at the backdrop of distribution companies (DISCOMS) facing deep financial crunch which has led to delayed payments to the electricity generation utilities, pushing many towards a financial crisis.