Mumbai, Oct 20 (IANS): The Adani Group has bagged a bid to install 10.80 lakh (1.80 million) "Smart Meters" for electricity consumers of the Bombay Electric Supply & Transport (BEST), which will 'empower' the distributor to cut-off the power supply of bill defaulters automatically, officials said here on Thursday.

The BEST has awarded the Rs 1,250 crore project to Adani Transmission Ltd (ATL)'s Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) partner, and the installation of Smart Meters will be completed in two-and-half years, said the company's Distribution CEO Kandarp Patel.

Besides installing the Smart Meters for all the users along with the related communication and cloud infrastructure, the ATL shall also maintain them for a period of seven-and-half years for the BEST on a design-build-finance-own-operate-transfer basis, he added.

This project -- billed as the biggest of its kind in the country -- will cover end-to-end Smart Metering for distribution infrastructure and end consumers of BEST, with complete energy accounting and zero manual intervention.

It will also empower BEST power consumers -- all located in south Mumbai -- to monitor online consumption patterns and take prompt corrective action if needed, in addition to options like pre-paid billing, net-metering facilities for housing complexes and commercial buildings with roof-top solar energy plants, etc.

Simultaneously, the BEST will be able to carry out 'remote connection and disconnection' for bill defaulters, while the power regulators could offer consumers 'friendly time of day tariffs' and increase overall efficiency in electricity distribution, said officials.

Patel said the project is in line with the company's long-term goals "to deliver customer value through the potential of technology and digitalisation" and achieving power for all by 2022.