Now forget about standing in Bescom offices to pay your bills, instead just go to the nearest mobile recharge shop! The city power utility which is in the process of setting up smart meters in the city, is planning to introduce this feature in the smart meters. It is planning to implement the project in a phase-wise manner across the city covering about 8 lakh homes, from June end. At present, a pilot project has been undertaken at Bank Colony and Hanumanth Nagar.
“In the initial phase, we will be activating two types of smart meters, one with pre-paid capabilities and other, the usual post-paid meter, where consumers will pay their bills at the end of the month,” said Satish Kumar, general manager (smart meter), Bescom.
Pre-paid meters will be mainly for commercial consumers; however, even household consumers can have this mode activated if they desire to do so. “Those using pre-paid modes can put the currency on their meters from mobile recharge shops. We are currently working on a payment gateway to enable this mode. While the pre-paid mode is mainly for LT-3 costumers, household consumers can also get it activated if they want it,” added Mr Kumar.
Besides assisting the utility in bringing down its load, these smart meters will also help Bescom to set up its smart grid, which is still in the planning stages. However, to get the smart meter project going, Bescom has to get clearance from the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission. Earlier Deccan Chronicle raised the issue that there is a security risk attached to smart meters with the possibility of hackers hacking into the smart meters and causing massive blackouts. As per sources, the state electricity regulatory commission is reluctant in giving clearance, and has raised questions on the viability of the whole project and assurance of non-tamperable nature. Bescom which is keen on the project is hopeful of getting clearance by June-end.