The PDD is replacing the electricity meters with new ones to stop power theft. Abdul Mohamin reports.
The Power Development Department (PDD) is replacing the old electricity meters with new ‘more’ tamper proof ones to get a more clear picture on energy consumption and to arrest power pilferage in the state.

The PDD officials say that they will also install these new transparent meters in what they called ‘meter restive areas’. The older lot of grey casing counter type electric meters will be phased out completely.

The officials maintain that the new meters have a technological edge, which will help in bringing transparency in energy management and clear the grey areas that were left by the old meters. The old meters were vulnerable to tampering.

Assistant Executive Engineer PDD, Shabir Ahmad Khan, said, “The phase out of meters of older lot is a continuous process and replacements are being carried out as the old lot was not  giving accurate figures about consumption, besides the latest meters are too smart to be tampered with.”

Abrar Ahmad, Technical Officer with the PDD, said that over the time consumers had found ways to tamper with the meters and the latest replacement has been designed to meet tamper challenges.

“Given our experience in detecting power theft, we found that the modus operandi to pilfer electricity was getting highly technical and people with technical know how had devised innovative ways to cheat,” Ahmed said, “We could see that meters were not giving us accurate figures”.

Some of the ways of power theft were so novel that officials were unable to detect them.

“Tapping power through hooking was detectable to our vigilance teams. So, many consumers had targeted this energy measuring device to either slowing it down using strong magnets or certain shunting practices,” said Ahmad. Moreover the grey cased meters were prone to tapping from backside, which can be easily detected in the new meters with transparent cases.

Khan claims that the latest digital meters are highly sophisticated but does not rule out tampering.

“We cannot classify any set of meters as tamper proof but the latest procurement has features where in we could detect pilferage or any tampering with ease,” he said.

The meters according to experts are approved by the Central Electric Authority (CEA) for use in whole of India.
 
The new meters procured by the PDD are produced by HPL and got certified by the Central Power Research Institute (CPRI). They have a snap fit arrangement – a setup where the meter gets locked in the casing of polycarbonate, a similar material that is used in the protective shields used by police.

Even though the new variant is a snap fit arrangement and does not require a seal, the PDD has been extra-cautious and added its departmental seal.

The officials said that once fitted the new meters cannot be opened. Other features include a LED display and a set up to show that the device is recording when load is on.

The PDD which presently is vigorously phasing out the older lot of electric meters is hopeful of achieving full metering for its consumers by March next year.

The officials said that the whole of the Jammu and Kashmir would be metered, and a total of 12.5 lakh meters will be added between PDD’s LT lines and the consumer service lines.

The officials say that the flat rate system will have to go and the meters will make debut in several areas that are still restive to paying as per consumption.

In Kashmir province some 6.38 lakh meters will be installed out of which 2.11 lakh have already been installed and the rest have to be installed during this year.

“The older lot were very robust electro-mechanical meters, even though they too recorded using the same unit scale where one unit of power consumed is ten 100 watt lamps in an hour, but they had been bye-passed by the consumers,” said Khan.

A PDD official said that in Saudi Arabia one will still find the same electromechanical types in place as tampering is out of question there.

The department is carrying the first installation free of cost, but for any damage due to overloading or any other cause will have to be paid by the consumer costing him up to Rs 1500.

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