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Mumbai: Starting next month, the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) will begin the work to replace the regular electric meters with prepaid smart meters in the city. Replacement work in the western and eastern suburbs has already begun. Home Electric Meter
These smart meters are said to enhance customer experience in terms of accuracy in data collection on electricity consumption. Customers will get timely alerts on energy usage, address power thefts, enable utility companies to quickly identify and address issues with the grid, reduce downtime, and minimize outages.
According to BEST officials, the initial study on these smart meters has already been conducted, and Adani Electricity has been appointed as the contractor, after following the due process, they will also maintain it for 10 years.
“We will begin installing these smart meters in three weeks for all our 10.50 lakh consumers,” said a senior BEST official. These smart meters will provide flexible payment options, no late payment penalties, easy access to energy usage data, etc. “We expect these meters to be installed in two years,” added the official.
A few days ago, there was opposition from the Congress over this ₹ 1,300 crore prepaid smart meter project of BEST.
Smart Water Flow Meter On the other hand, Adani Electricity has already begun installing these smart meters for their 26 lakhs plus consumers. “So far, we have installed 4.55 lakh smart meters. We started the work in 2022 at a total project cost of approximately ₹ 2,000 crore that we plan to complete by the end of 2025,” a spokesperson from Adani Electricity said. Adani Electricity officials said that these smart meters will also help them to identify problems much faster.