Electrical Research & Development Association (ERDA) has received a major rate contract for the evaluation of smart meters.
In a release, ERDA said that this contract was placed by IntelliSmart Infrastructure Pvt Ltd (IntelliSmart) — a joint venture between Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) and National Investment & Infrastructure Fund (NIIF).
This contract will help in expediting the deployment of smart meters across the country and will ensure performance and quality of the meters, ERDA said.
Government of India plans to install 25 crore smart meters in the next few years. With the replacement of 25 crore conventional meters with smart meters, billing efficiency can improve from 80 percent to 100 per cent. This can potentially increase revenues of state government-owned power distribution companies by Rs.1,104 billion, the ERDA release observed.
IntelliSmart was established with the focus to implement, finance, and operate the smart meter roll-out program of power distribution companies. (Read more)
ERDA currently meets around 50 per cent of India’s overall smart meter testing requirement.
With this prestigious contract and other testing assignment from utilities across India, ERDA is committed to build trust of people of Indian electricity consumers by ensuring excellent quality Smart Metersin the Indian power distribution sector, ERDA said.
Also read: ERDA Gets Accreditation For Testing Of Telecom Equipment
First to get BIS accreditation
ERDA’s smart meter testing facility is accredited by NABL and BIS. In fact, ERDA was the first laboratory in India to get Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) accreditation for Smart Meter testing as per IS 16444: 2015.
ERDA is equipped with communication protocol verification facility as per IS15959 using CTT 3.1 extended edition from DLMS user association, and meter explorer software tool. ERDA is also recognized as one of the designated laboratories for testing of smart meters with IEC62056 communication protocols by the Union power ministry. ERDA has its own in-house EMI/EMC testing facility required for smart meter testing.
Featured photograph relates to ERDA smart meter testing facilities.
