The Ministry of Power on 23rd May 2022, has notified new timeline for replacement of existing meters with smart meters with prepayment feature. As per the notification all consumers (other than agricultural consumers) in areas with communication network, shall be supplied electricity with Smart Meters working in prepayment mode.
- All Union Territories, all electrical divisions with high AT&C Loss, Industrial and Commercial consumers, all Government offices at Block level and above, shall be metered with smart meters, with prepayment mode, by 31st December, 2023:
Provided that these areas shall also be covered for smart Distribution Transformer (DT) metering by the Advanced Metering Infrastructure Service Provider ( AMISP), on a priority basis, by 31st March, 2023.
- All other areas shall be metered with smart meters, with prepayment mode, by 31st March, 2025:
Provided that in these areas smart Distribution Transformer (DT) metering shall be completed by 31st December, 2023
- All feeders shall be metered by 31st December, 2022;
- All the feeder meters shall be made communicable under National Feeder Monitoring System (NFMS) by 31st December, 2022 and shall have Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) facility or shall be covered under Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI).
Further all consumer connections, having current carrying capacity beyond that specified in relevant IS, may be provided with meters with smart meters having AMR facility.
The Distribution Transformers (DTs) and High Voltage Distribution System (HVDS) transformers having a capacity of less than 25 kVA and DTs feeding only agricultural consumers may be excluded from the above timelines.
