Union Power Minister R K Singh has stressed on implementation of smart metering in pre-paid mode.
Chairing a review planning and monitoring meeting with states and state power utilities on January 23 and 24 in the city, the minister has also advised the states to expedite the implementation of scheme, an official statement said on Wednesday.
The states have also been advised to ensure that no penalty be levied on any consumer for higher load discovered after installation of prepaid smart meter and billing may be done on actual load basis.
The Minister stressed on the need to address inefficiencies in distribution sector with priority on reduction of losses, maintaining proper subsidy accounts, energy accounting and to ensure prepaid smart metering implementation to enhance revenue realization and thereby avoiding undesirable borrowings.
Singh has also emphasized the importance of implementing Time of Day (ToD) tariff to ensure flattening of load curves while ensuring that tariff for solar hours be kept reasonable.
The minister has also highlighted the benefits of solarization of agriculture feeders as it will provide power, at lower cost, during the daytime to agriculture consumers and reduce subsidy burden of the state government.
