Saurashtra-Kutch will now get 10,000 smart meters per day: 60 paise rebate on electricity consumption in the afternoon; PGVCL showed smartness by not installing smart meters in elections!

The brakes that were put in place in the installation of smart meters due to the local body elections have now been removed. So far, about 3,000 metres were laid every day, now the target has been increased to 10,000 metres per day. The work started in 2024 has been completed in barely 10% of the year and a half, but now PGVCL plans to give further impetus to this campaign. The work was slowed down due to the elections and the uproar Saurashtra-Kutch has a total of 56.92 lakh non-agricultural residential consumers, out of which only 6.14 lakh consumers have had smart meters installed there so far. Initially there were complaints that the meters were running fast and the bill was getting higher. In addition, operations were stopped to avoid any controversy in the election amid allegations of coercion by power employees. However, the Managing Director of PGVCL has announced that the process will be expedited again from this month. Smart meters will only benefit consumers: Ketan Joshi PGVCL managing director Ketan Joshi told Divya Bhaskar that the project to install smart meters is funded by the central government and is being monitored by the state government. At present, a campaign is underway to install smart meters in the state of Gujarat. The work of installing smart meters is being done by Aparva and Bharat Green. There is a misconception among consumers about installing smart meters that smart meters run fast and it benefits the company, but only the consumer benefits from smart meters. Customers do not need to complain when voltage fluctuations, load balancing and faults are caused by the installation of smart meters, but instead a note is taken at the SCADA centre here. You will get a rebate of 60 paise per unit in the afternoon He also said that those who install smart meters will be given a rebate of 60 paise per unit during peak hours from 11 am to 5 pm. That is, there is a benefit of 33% in the bill. Currently we have door-to-door open access through both agencies. About 3000 smart meters are being installed every day. PGVCL plans to install 10,000 smart meters per day in the coming days. Connection with mobile app after installation of smart meter He said that about 45 lakh smart meters are yet to be installed in Saurashtra and Kutch. After installing the smart meter, it is connected to SCADA through a mobile application. So far, when six lakh smart meters were installed, they were not connected through the online system, due to which the consumers did not get their electricity bills on time. During this time, the Czech smart meters were not communicative. So we told the agencies to do quality work first and connect it to the system so that customers do not face difficulties.