Guwahati: At a time when a hue and cry is being raised over the installation of smart meters by Assam Power Distribution Company Ltd. (APDCL) in households, it has emerged that Assam has installed the highest number of smart meters in the country. It is even more concerning that APDCL has installed more smart meters in rural areas of the state than in urban centres.
It should be noted that smart meters are being installed across the country under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS), which was launched by the central government in July 2021.
According to data submitted in the Rajya Sabha by the Union Ministry of Power recently, Assam leads other states in the country in the installation of smart meters, with a total of 23,30,073 smart meters installed in the state. The second state in the list is Bihar, with 19,64,207 smart meters installed, followed by Madhya Pradesh with 10,20,142, Chhattisgarh with 5,88,476, Maharashtra with 4,30,455, and Uttar Pradesh with 4,14,133 smart meters installed. The neighbouring state of West Bengal lags behind with only 1,08,959 such meters installed. It is even more disconcerting that NE states of Tripura have just 83, Manipur 77, and Sikkim only 1,549 smart meters installed. Notably, smart meters are being installed in only 16 states in the country under RDSS.
What is more significant is that more smart meters were installed in rural areas than in urban centres of Assam. APDCL has installed 18,27,154 smart meters in rural areas and 4,62,294 meters in urban areas for power consumers. However, Distribution Transformer (DT) smart meters were installed only in rural areas, with 38,047 such meters installed. But no DT meters have been installed in urban areas. In the case of Feeder meters, 1,865 smart meters were installed in rural areas, and 713 smart meters were installed in urban areas.
Interestingly, it was stated by the Power Ministry that no smart meters for general consumers were installed in rural areas of Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand, and Manipur. In the other states too, the number of smart meters in urban areas outstripped those in rural areas.
In the Union Ministry of Power’s statement in the Rajya Sabha, it was emphasised that, under RDSS, smart meter installation is not mandated for farmers.
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