Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has emerged as the lowest bidder of the tender issued by Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) to procure 50 lakh smart meters.
With a quote of Rs.2,722 per single-phase smart meter, L&T won the tender contested in an international competitive bidding process, with Genus Power and Keonics coming second and third, respectively. L&T’s quote is around 40-50 per cent lower than the current market rates. A total of 14 suppliers, both local and domestic, participated in the mega tender.
The 50 lakh smart meters will be installed, over a three-year period, in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh where AT&C losses are an estimated 28.42 per cent 34.36 per cent, respectively, a government release said. Around 40 lakh of these meters will be installed in Uttar Pradesh alone.
It is estimated that power utilities currently spend Rs.40 to carry out reading of one analog meter. Meter reading costs are completely avoided in smart meters.
Smart meters are a part of the overall Advanced Metering Infrastructure Solutions (AMI) aimed at better demand response designed to reduce energy consumption during peak hours. The overall AMI solution will also have a system integrator who will be responsible for meter installation, data storage on cloud, preparing dashboards, etc. The bids for the system integrator will open on October 31, 2017.
Installation of these smart meters along with its associated communication and IT infrastructure will enable the discoms to obtain real time energy consumption data of each consumer for subsequent analysis.
The smart meters procured by EESL use GPRS technology to allow 2–way communication between the discom and consumers. Once installed, an energy supplier can read a meter via the mobile phone network. Householders can also receive a digital display which helps them to access how much power they are consuming – and its cost – in real time. Smart meters enable one to see the consumption pattern and the cost. This means one can adapt the energy use and cut down on waste to provide financial savings to consumers. They further provide an accurate and real-time information about the energy use, enabling one to take informed decisions about their energy behaviour.
EESL is procuring the smart meters and services of the system integrator with 100 per cent investment and the utilities will make zero-investment. The repayment to EESL will be through savings resulting from enhanced billing efficiency, avoided meter reading costs, etc.
According to information available with T&D India, though L&T has won the tender, other suppliers will be roped in if they could match L&T’s quote. However, the number of suppliers that will supplement L&T is not yet known.
Photograph is for illustration only
