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School of Good Governance And Policy Analysis

National Workshop onDisseminating Information on Good Practices in

Public Service Delivery June 5, 2009

Automated Meter Reading Project in MP East Discom: A Breakthrough in Automation

-Executive Director,

M.P. Poorva Kshetra Vidyut Vitaran Co. Ltd., Jabalpur

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INTRODUCTION

• The Power Sector in India sustains a loss of over 25-30% because of pilferage of electricity.

• The weakest links in the distribution of power are: Easy accessibility of meters to consumers,

because of which a large no. of whom tamper with it.

Human element involved in Reading of the meters

• Note:-According to the CEA, during the financial year 2008-09, the Indian utilities could supply 689 billion kWh of electricity against requirement of 774 billion kWh, which represents shortfall of about 11.0%.

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AUTOMATION AS A SOLUTION:

• A solution to this ever growing problem would be:Device a mechanism for for remote surveillance /

monitoring of meters.Automation of the meter readings.

• East DISCOM in MP took initiative in this direction. • The AMR Project initiated by the Discom has made a

breakthrough in the automation of Power utilities.

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BACKGROUND

Previous Practice of Meter reading and billing:

Manual Reading. Billing through punching of manually

recorded reading data at billing centers. Decentralized database.

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BILLING PROCESS PRIOR TO PROJECT

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DRAWBACKS IN PREVIOUS PRACTICE

• Waste of highly skilled manpower .

• Expenses on conveyance.

• Likelihood of errors and manipulations.

• Time lag between reading and billing.

• Delay in detection and rectification of defects in the metering system.

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Installation of Intelligent Electronic Meters

• The DISCOM took an initiative and provided modern static energy meters in respect of all its HT and LT high value consumers.

• These meters can store several kilobytes of metering data that can be used for billing and diagnostic purposes.

• This data can be downloaded to a handheld device called Meter Reading Instrument through the optical port ,which can be further uploaded to a PC for analysis.

• The process of billing through MRI downloads was introduced in Sep’06

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Reading through MRIs

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Initiation of AMR Project by the Discom

During billing Consumers through MRI downloads, it was observed that substantial amount of time & manpower was engaged in monthly meter reading of the consumers. In view of the above, it was decided by the company in Oct’06 that meter readings be managed remotely.This would save cost on valuable man power involved in meter reading activity.

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STAGES OF AMR IMPLEMENTATION

STAGE-1

Installation of Electronic Meters with data storage feature in respect of all HT and LT high value consumers

STAGE-1STAGE-2

Billing through MRI downloads

STAGE-3

Remote Reading of Meters and Billing

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Mode of Communication• GSM was chosen as the mode for communication.• The GSM is the most popular standard for mobile

phones in the world to cater voice services and data delivery.  

• GSM network operates in two different frequency ranges in India - 900 MHz/ 1800 MHz.

• The max baud rate for data transfer over GSM is 9600 bps.

 

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PRINCIPAL DIAGRAM

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DEPLOYMENT OF MODEMS

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• Consumer End: GSM Modem (Transparent) with data enabled SIM.

• Server End: GSM Modem( Store and forward) with data enabled SIM.

• Communication Channel: GSM Network.

Meter connectivity (Optical port /RJ11)

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System Configurations- Outbound Dialing(For initiation of call from Central Station)

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System Configurations - Inbound Dialing (For initiation of call from Meter Modem)

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System Configurations - Event based Dialing (For initiation of call from Modem in case of occurrence of events)

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Billing Process – Post AMR

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INFORMATIONS RECEIVED FROM METER

• Instant parameters.

• Load & demand data.

• Energy values

• Tamper records.

• Transactions

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What is a Meter Tamper?

• It is an intentional change in Electrical parameters such that it gives an advantage to the customer by registering less energy than actually consumed.

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Tamper detection & Logging

• The meter analyses the electrical parameters and their relationships to make a judgement whether this is a situation which may happen due to normal load conditions or is artificially caused.

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Commonly Logged Events

• Missing Potential.

• CT reversal.

• CT short or open.

• Current unbalance.

• Magnetic Tampers.

• Power off.

• Neutral Disturbance.

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A CASE STUDY• Name of Consumer: M/s SECL,Arjuna Township,Kotma. Distt. Anuppur.• Meter No. : MPE56593• Event Observed: : CT Open.• Date of occurrence: 10.03.09.• Date of attending of Metering: 06.04.09.• Observation at site: CT of ME found open.• Confirmation with event observed: Yes• Reading at the time of occurrence: 1655600• Reading at the time of restoration: 1835200• Assessed units not recorded by meter: 40157• Recovery raised: Rs. 2.01 lac• Amt Recovered: Rs. 2.01 lac.

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Phased Implementation

Phase Functionalities Target time period.

Phase-1 All HT Consumers. Dec’07

Phase-2All LT High value Industrial consumers above 25 HP.

Dec’08

Phase-3All LT High value consumers above 10 HP

Dec’0923

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OUT REACH OF THE PROJECT(IN TERMS OF GEOGRAPHICAL COVERAGE)

The Project covers complete Company area which is 1,35,162 sq kms (45% of the area of MP).

It covers 4 commissionaries namely Jabalpur, Rewa, Sagar & Shahdol with 20 districts.

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OUT REACH OF THE PROJECT:(IN TERMS OF NO. OF CONSUMERS)

S. No.

Category of Consumers

Total No.

No. covered in the

Project

% Coverage Status/ Target for balance work

1. HT Consumers 752 752 100% -

2. LT Consumers above 25 hp

(INDUSTRIAL))

1775 1775 100% -

LT Consumers above 25 hp

(Commercial)

1835 200 11% Installation work of balance in progress, shall be covered by Dec’09

3. LT Consumers above 10 hp

12716 500 - Installation work in progress . Shall be covered by Dec’09

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OUTREACH OF THE PROJECT:(IN TERMS OF REVENUE)

Particulars No. Units Sold in MU

Demand in Cr. Rs.

% of Total Revenue

1. Total Consumers

2692716 5726.5 2540.17 -

2. HT & High Value LT Consumers

17037 3023.3 1626.25 64%

3. Balance Consumers

2675679 2703.2 913.92 36%

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OVERALL IMPACT OF THE PROJECT(A) PROTECTION OF REVENUE :• Protection of over 60% of Company’s revenue.

(Rs.1524 Cr. during the FY 08-09).• Reduction in billing cycle from 10-12 days to 1-2

days.

(B) REDUCTION IN EXPENSES :

Prior to AMR : Rs 7,00,000/ per month on meter reading After AMR : Rs 26,000/- per month.

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OVERALL IMPACT OF THE PROJECT(C) CLOSE SURVEILLANCE/VIGILANCE: Large No. cases of malpractice/theft detected: HT 102 cases Rs. 567 Lac Recovered. LT 140 cases Rs. 68 Lac Recovered.• Majority of these cases would have escaped

unnoticed .• Consumers using very advanced technology for

theft also brought to book.

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OVERALL IMPACT OF THE PROJECT(D) IMPROVEMENT IN CONSUMER SERVICES:• Elimination of errors in meter reading & data entry.

(Earlier it was around 10%.)• Continuous vision can be kept on the consumption

of consumers.• Quick restoration of supply.• In case of any defect in metering system immediate

rectification/replacement of same.• Email & SMS alerts for reminder of bill amounts &

due date of remittance.• No more botheration of presence during reading

process.

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OVERALL IMPACT OF THE PROJECT

(E)REDUCTION IN LINE LOSS OF THE COMPANY

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40.02

54.78

37.31

51.54

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

% L

oss

2007-2008 2008-2009

% Line loss during the year

With HT Without HT

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IMPROVEMENT IN MONITORING

Continuous Monitoring of :- Meter-data of consumers for tamper-events. Erratic functioning of metering system. Consumption/demand pattern. Supply position of these consumers with immediate

corrective

measures.

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SCREEN SHOTS:BILLS ON NET

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SCREEN SHOTS:BILLS ON NET

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Third Party Assessment/Awards

Recognition by GoMP.Rated best application in e-Governance initiatives by

Govt. of Madhya Pradesh for the year 2007-08 and awarded ‘AWARD OF EXCELLENCE’.

Recognition by Govt. of India.Exemplary usage of ICT by Public Sector undertaking.

National e-Governance awards 2008-09 by Govt. of India and Conferred with Silver Award.

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Third Party Assessment/Awards

Recognition by Regulatory Commission. The Project was cited & highly appreciated by the

State Regulatory Commission before the forum of regulators during their National meet held on 24-25th Sep’08 at Khajuraho.

MPERC has issued specific directives to other discoms in the state to implement AMR, based on our Project.

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Third Party Assessment/Awards (C) Compliments received from Industry Chambers:

“MP East Discom have done a commendable work by remotely monitoring all its big consumers. This has paved way for improvement in supply conditions as the actual power supply parameters are monitored by the Senior officers, so the Industries now don’t have to take pain in conveying grievances at various levels/forums.

- Pt. B.D. Bajpai, President, Mahakoushal Chamber of Commerce & Industries.

“The greatest benefit to the consumers from Remote Metering by East Discom is accuracy in billing and elimination of errors in meter reading. Industry will definitely benefit from this initiative.”

-Mr. Arun Jain, Vice President FICCI.

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Third Party Assessment/Awards (D) Appreciation received from some of

our respected Consumers:1. Mr. R.C. Saboo, MD, Rewa Gas Pvt. Ltd.,Waidhan.2. Mr. V.K. Mittal, Director, Vindhyachal Air Products

Ltd.,Waidhan.3. Mr. B.L. Chourasia, GM, Hindustan Lever

Ltd.,Chhindwara.4. Mr. A.D. Saxena, GM, Renusagar Power

Co.,Singrauli.5. Mr. Narendra Sommaiya, President, Mahakaushal

Udyog Sangh

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OTHER CRITICAL INDICATORS In house development, without any external support. End to end automated metering and billing solution. Increase in Collection Efficiency by 1.5%. Reduction in grievances in respect of the consumers. Highly skilled manpower released for other productive

work. Facilitated MIS.

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THANKS