The National Electricity Policy (NEP)-2021 pitched for smart meters, metering for agriculture services and privatisation of power sector. The Ministry of Power released the draft NEP 2021, seeking suggestions from the stakeholders to present the final policy within two months. The draft policy states that all consumers shall be metered and shall be required to pay electricity charges for the power consumed in accordance with the tarif f fixed by the commission.

“Despite the repeated emphasis on metering, discoms are yet to achieve hundred per cent metering of all consumers. The achievement in agriculture sector is not satisfactory and requires attention on priority basis. Discoms should take necessary steps to achieve 100 per cent metering of all consumers within one year of the notification of this policy,” the draft NEP said.

The policy further stressed the need for the use of automation and smart metering. “Smart metering can play a pivotal role in bringing the positive transformation in the distribution sector. Smart meters have advantages of remote metering and billing. The shift to the pre-paid system will do away with all the problems associated with meter reading, billing, collection and disconnection in case of non-payment. All the new electricity connections should be released with smart pre-paid meters/simple pre-paid meters.

Further, existing meters should also be replaced with pre-paid meters in a phased manner so as to achieve 100 per cent pre-paid metering within three years from the date of issuance of this policy,” the draft said. It added that use of smart meters along with the energy audit systems is helpful to detect theft of electricity. The policy said that if the State government desires to grant any subsidy to any consumer or class of consumers in the tariff determined by the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC), the same shall be in the form of direct benefit transfer (DBT).

PPP mode

For the progressive growth of the electricity distribution sector, it is essential that the sector becomes sustainable. The Public Private Partnership (PPP) in electricity distribution sector is one of the effective ways to improve the efficiency, the NEP said.