Learning Launch

Challenge:

The Power distribution business in India is dilapidated due to mounting debts, cross subsidies,  non-recovery of due electricity bills, poor and old infrastructure and power theft. To help the  power distribution companies sail through this crisis, the State Government has to take some  steps and come up with innovative Ideas in order to revive and sustain the Power distribution  business towards Profit. In order to achieve this, the government set up a task force which  needs to come up with a solution as soon as possible. The task force has recommended to  replace the current Energy meters with Smart prepaid energy meters.

Selection:

The task force initially came up with a lot of ideas, but most of them involved manual meter  readings and involvement of human resources in unnecessary and unproductive activities. The  task force decided to go along with Prepaid Smart energy meters on trial basis in order to find  out the conformance of assumptions to the real world observations and also to get an idea  about the overall financial viability of the scheme.

Application:

In order to test the idea, the task force identified key areas in the state (taking into account the  diversity based on income level, urbanity and geographical conditions). The areas were called as  ‘Trial Sections’. A total of 25 trial sections across the state were selected and the existing  meters in the area were replaced with Smart Prepaid energy meters. The energy meters came  with a simcard and it had to be recharged according to the needs of the households.

The consumers in the selected sections were given prior knowledge regarding the calculation of  daily estimated electricity consumption, and they had to calculate their estimated consumption  for the trial month and select an appropriate recharge plan. The trials were conducted for 3  months and at the end of the 3 months’ results were observed and consumer surveys were  made.

Insights:

The consumers survey and the observations of the trial system gave following observations:

1. A lot of technical glitches in the Smart Prepaid Energy meters.  2. Confusion and dissatisfaction about the way by which tariffs were calculated.  3. Technical glitches in the Meter data acquisition system.  4. Improvement in the revenue generation and more efficiency.  5. Reduction in manpower requirement.

Conclusion:

By taking into account all the above observations, the task force recommended redesign of  Smart energy meters and meter data acquisition system. The technical glitches had to be  removed by the company producing it and trials had to be taken. The task force recommended  a new comprehensive tariff calculation method taking into account all the disparities and New  consumer support centers were recommended to be established at all the sections according to  the count of the number of consumers in that section.


Learning Launch Challenge : The Power distribution business in India is dilapidated due to mounting debts , cross subsidies , non - recovery of due electricity bills , poor and old infrastructure and power theft . To help the power distribution companies sail through this crisis , the State Government has to take some steps and come up with innovative Ideas in order to revive and sustain the Power distribution business towards Profit . In order to achieve this , the government set up a task force which needs to come up with a solution as soon as possible . The task force has recommended to replace the current Energy meters with Smart prepaid energy meters . Selection : The task force initially came up with a lot of ideas , but most of them involved manual meter readings and involvement of human resources in unnecessary and unproductive activities . The task force decided to go along with Prepaid Smart energy meters on trial basis in order to find out the conformance of assumptions to the real world observations and also to get an idea about the overall financial viability of the scheme . Application : In order to test the idea , the task force identified key areas in the state ( taking into account the diversity based on income level , urbanity and geographical conditions ) . The areas were called as ‘ Trial Sections ’ . A total of 25 trial sections across the state were selected and the existing meters in the area were replaced with Smart Prepaid energy meters . The energy meters came with a simcard and it had to be recharged according to the needs of the households . The consumers in the selected sections were given prior knowledge regarding the calculation of daily estimated electricity consumption , and they had to calculate their estimated consumption for the trial month and select an appropriate recharge plan . The trials were conducted for 3 months and at the end of the 3 months ’ results were observed and consumer surveys were made . Insights : The consumers survey and the observations of the trial system gave following observations : 1 . A lot of technical glitches in the Smart Prepaid Energy meters . 2 . Confusion and dissatisfaction about the way by which tariffs were calculated . 3 . Technical glitches in the Meter data acquisition system . 4 . Improvement in the revenue generation and more efficiency . 5 . Reduction in manpower requirement . Conclusion : By taking into account all the above observations , the task force recommended redesign of Smart energy meters and meter data acquisition system . The technical glitches had to be removed by the company producing it and trials had to be taken . The task force recommended a new comprehensive tariff calculation method taking into account all the disparities and New consumer support centers were recommended to be established at all the sections according to the count of the number of consumers in that section .