Assam, among six states surveyed, has the highest share of consumers who are satisfied with smart electricity or prepaid meters and feel that these have enabled greater control over electricity expenses.
This came to Light at the national dialogue on smart-metered India for a digitalised and people-centric power sector organised in New Delhi by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW). The event was attended by Union power minister RK Singh, who released CEEWs study Enabling a consumer-centric smart metering transition in India, which ranked Assam as the best performing state in delivering customer satisfaction, hassle-free installation ofsmart metersand accessing detailed break-up of bills.
The CEEW study is based on a survey of 2,700 urban households covering 1,200 prepaid and 1,500 post-paid consumers across six states Assam, Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh,Rajasthanand Uttar Pradesh, 18 districts and 10 public discoms. These six states account for 80% of all smart meters installed in India.
The smart meter project started with a need automating the reading of meters and sending electricity bills to 2.90 crore houses on time.
The survey, however, found that mere 13% of post-paid electricity consumers in India and only six per cent in Assam want to shift to the prepaid mode even as the Centre has envisioned making the entire billing system prepaid in the country by 2025-26.
In Assam, about 68% of the consumers feel that smart meters enable better control on electricity expenses, while 66% of consumers report that electricity supply quality has improved since making the transition to smart meters.