Uttar Pradesh Planning to Install Prepaid Smart Meters

By Ayush Verma/ Updated On Wed, Oct 30th, 2019

The Uttar Pradesh government is planning to install prepaid smart meters for electricity consumption from mid-November, a senior official has announced

Uttar Pradesh Prepaid Meters

The Uttar Pradesh government is planning to install prepaid smart meters for electricity consumption from mid-November.

“We are planning to install prepaid smart meters for electricity consumption from November 15, 2019,” said Uttar Pradesh Energy Minister Shrikant Sharma. Sharma stated that the state government will begin this exercise from the residence of officials, elected representatives and Ministers.

“Our intention is to make electricity affordable for everyone,” he added.

In July, we reported that India was moving towards a new regime where a power consumer would pay first and then get power supply, which would eventually deal with the issue of non-payment in the sector, Union Minister R K Singh had said. The minister also made it clear that states can give free power to certain sections of society but they would have to pay for it from their own budget.

“That is what we are going to do. We are putting a connect between payment and delivery. You make the payment first and then you will get the power… there is no such thing as free power. You cannot produce power without an investment,” Singh said addressing the 20th Annual Day of PTC India. He further said “power has a cost and somebody has to pay for it. If you want to give free power then go ahead. But you (states) have to pay for it from your budget. That is what we are going to do.”

In August, the state government of Odisha announced that it had decided to introduce prepaid smart electricity meters in the state in order to stop power theft and meter tampering, Energy Minister D S Mishra has said.

The consumers will get a prepaid card to recharge their electricity meter as they do in mobile phone service after completion of their paid amount, he said. The main purpose of installing such meters is to put a check on meter tampering and power theft.