Smart Meters to revolutionise Kashmir Valley's power supply

The Power Development Department (PDD) stated on Monday that the complete deployment of smart meters would be carried out within the next two years across the Kashmir Valley. Javed Yousuf Dar, Chief Engineer of PDD, remarked that the government was considering providing an uninterrupted electricity supply to consumers, and as part of this effort, full deployment of smart meters would be accomplished in the next two years across the Kashmir Valley. It is a policy decision of the government of India to replace traditional meters with smart meters. So far, we have installed one lakh smart meters in various parts of the Kashmir Valley. He explained that with traditional meters, there was a manual process involved in collecting readings, which had to be submitted to the sub-division. This was a labour-intensive procedure for the department, consuming a significant amount of manpower and energy. He further stated that now, those traditional meters would be replaced by smart meters, resulting in a transparent process, and bills would be automatically generated from then on. The Chief Engineer of PDD shared that during the installation process, department officials had faced significant resistance in various areas. However, with the assistance of the police and civil administration, the locals were convinced, and meters were successfully installed. He asserted that in the next two years, they would ensure 100 per cent deployment of smart meters. He added that the installation of smart meters would greatly benefit their distribution company. PDD aimed to provide an uninterrupted electricity supply to consumers, which could only be achieved through the installation of smart meters. Additionally, he mentioned that power cuts would either be eliminated or reduced in the coming years. He also mentioned that smart meters were similar to traditional meters, with the only difference lying in data collection. He further explained that the readings were directly transmitted to their data centre, reducing the workload of field staff. Furthermore, he stated that apart from a few areas with protests, many localities had approached PDD to have smart meters installed for uninterrupted power supply. In response to a query, the Chief Engineer of PDD informed that the department had received several complaints of meter tampering. However, due to vigilance, such attempts had been promptly thwarted. He emphasised that it had been observed that certain individuals were deceiving innocent consumers by offering meter tampering in exchange for financial gains. He urged people not to fall under the influence of such individuals and made them aware that any attempt at tampering instantly triggered an alert in their data centre. He added that based on the directives of the central government, smart meters would be installed in a pre-paid mode. Also Read Rajasthan's Renewable Power Projects proposes simplified rulesIndustries write to govt as poor power infra affects business