Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad   

Innovative remote metering in select industrial services

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD Sept. 20. The Transmission Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (APTRANSO) has introduced an innovative remote metering facility in select industrial services and very high value commercial services for on-line monitoring of electricity consumption.

With this arrangement, the power utility can detect irregularities in the metering system such as burning of potential transformer (PT) fuses or shortcircuiting of current transformer (CT) or wrong association at the time of the release of the service, which might result in recording lesser energy.

According to K. Durga Prasad, joint managing director (Vigilance & Security) of APTRANSCO, the tampering of meter and metering arrangement including CTs and PTs can be detected right from the control room without visiting the site.

Participating in the national seminar on "Core reforms- time for action now'' at Delhi, Mr. Durga Prasad explained the features of the new facility created by Transco. He said it would help plug loopholes and instant energy audit on dedicated feeders in the industrial sector.

As a result of the efforts of Transco and Discoms, the metered sales increased from 9653 million units (MUs) in 2000-2001 to 10600 MUs in 2001-2002. The metered sales of the first five months of the current year, estimated at 12460 MUs, exceeded the annual target of 11441 MUs by nine per cent.

Mr. Durga Prasad pointed out that a massive metering plan was implemented vigorously as part of the reforms initiative. About 35 lakh meters were purchased as against the normal annual procurement of five to six lakh meters, bulk of them high accuracy ones.

The comprehensive energy audit system, introduced from October 1999 proved highly successful. The loss level in 113 out of 114 towns was brought down to well below 10 per cent. The energy audit is being extended to mandal headquarters in a phased manner.

As a fallout of the reform process, consumers are coming forward voluntarily to assist APTRANSCO in detecting pilferage and theft. Statewide inspections and meter changing programme led to detection of one lakh cases of theft of energy and recovery of more than Rs 50 crores.

He said the Transco proposed to extend the monthly billing system, which is in operation in major towns, to the entire State to reduce lag between energy supplies and revenue collected.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Serial deaths in festive times
• `More improvements in e-governance needed'
• Innovative remote metering in select industrial services

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu