Chennai, May 25 (IANS): The Tamil Nadu Generation and Power Distribution Company (Tangedco) is in the process of replacing digital power meters with smart meters.

This is to help the consumers get information on consumption, tariff, bill due date, and penalty for defaulting on payments in the mobile numbers of the consumers.

The department is bringing in smart meters to replace digital power meters to avoid human intervention in collecting meter readings and to deploy remote disconnection and reconnection of services.

Sources in Tangedco told IANS that the Industrial Technical Consultancy Organisation of Tamil Nadu (Itcot) has been assigned to prepare a preliminary technical report on replacing the present digital power meters with smart meters.

Tangedco officials said that the project report will be submitted in a few months and work will commence immediately after that. The smart meters costing Rs 6,000 to Rs 7,000 would be offered free of cost to the consumers and as a pilot project, the department has installed smart meters at Thiagaraja Nagar in Chennai. However, the meter reading is still being taken manually as software development is still under process.

Tangedco and Tamil Nadu government is expecting funding support from the Government of India. Sources in the department told IANS that the central power ministry had promised financial support for the project but it was put on hold due to the pandemic. The Tangedco has already submitted a reworked proposal to the Central government to totally bear the expenses of the project that would benefit the people immensely and reduce human intervention in even disconnection and reconnection.