Pay & use: A pre-paid meter
Patna Electric Supply Undertaking (Pesu) on Wednesday started installing pre-paid electronic power meters in the city.
The idea behind installing pre-paid meters is to check power theft and also minimise revenue losses of distribution companies. The facility is being rolled out in some of the areas of the capital on experimental basis.
'We have started installing pre-paid meters in Patna from Wednesday. The agency, selected for the purpose, has started installing pre-paid meters from Electricity Board Colony,' Pesu's acting general manager Dilip Kumar Singh told The Telegraph.
Singh said 7,000 pre-paid power meters would be installed in Pesu area. HPL Electric and Power Company has been entrusted with the job of installing such meters in the capital.
Singh added that initially such meters would be installed in government quarters and later on the premises of domestic consumers too.
A Pesu official said pre-paid meters have been installed in the government accommodations of South Bihar Power Company Ltd (SBPDCL) managing director and Pesu's acting GM and that of other senior officials.
Explaining the benefits of having a pre-paid metering system, sources said installation of pre-paid meters eliminate the cost of meter reading, bill serving, disconnection, avoids wrong readings, delay in bill delivery etc.
A power company official said: 'Pre-paid meters are being installed in some areas to get consumers' response. If consumers' feedback is positive, then it would be expanded not only to other remaining areas of Patna but would also be expanded in other districts. The idea is to study the impact (advantages/disadvantages) of having pre-paid meter system.'?
Sources said a consumer willing to get pre-paid meter installed on his/her premises will not have to pay a fee, rather consumers will have to pay a monthly meter rent as he/she pays for post-paid meter. If a power consumer uses more than the permissible limit of load, there would be an alarm and the supply would automatically get disconnected if he/she does not reduce the load of his/her premises.
If there is sufficient balance in the pre-paid meter, a green light would blink. The meter would not only start blinking red once the balance amount on the pre-paid meter dips below Rs 100 but would also start ringing an alarm. The power supply would automatically get disconnected if there is no balance in the account.