Nine companies are bidding for a major tender by Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) for the supply of smart meters, reliable media reports suggest.
Schneider Electric, Genus Power Infrastructures and HPL Electric & Power are amongst the contenders with some others being: Avon Meters, Zen Meter, Allied Engineering Works, and Linkwell Telesystems.
The tender aims to procure 2.35 million smart meters. The tender evaluation process is underway, it is learnt, with no timelines available for its finalization.
EESL , as the nodal agency of India’s Smart Meter National Programme (SMNP), is aiming to replace 250 million conventional energy meters with smart meters, with a view to improving commercial efficiency in the power distribution value chain. The programme is being initiated in states like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, etc, where AT&C losses are much higher than the national average.
Contract cancelled
EESL, it is further learnt, had cancelled a contract for the supply of smart meters awarded to Indonesia-based PT Hexing. The company had bid for the contract in consortium with Hexing Electrical Company and Pal Mohan Electronics Pvt Ltd.
It is further reported that EESL cancelled the contract in keeping with the change in policy guidelines that prohibit countries sharing land borders with India, to participate in India’s government-backed procurement initiatives, without prior approval. (See related story)
Though Indonesia does not strictly share a land border with India, it has a maritime border with Andaman & Nicobar Islands, a Union territory.
Ongoing procurement
It may be mentioned that the current tender of 2.35 million smart meter was not strictly a replacement of the cancelled tender awarded to PT Hexing but was part of EESL’s ongoing procurement drive.
Nearly 1.5 million
According to the Smart Meter National Programme dashboard, EESL has so far installed 14.57 lakh smart meters under the SMNP. Majority of these have found their way in Uttar Pradesh (11.20 lakh meters) and Haryana (2.04 lakh meters). It is estimated that at the national level, the installation of smart meters has resulted in an average increase in revenue to the tune of Rs.301 per meter per month, to the power distribution utility.
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