Ranjani Madhavan By Express News Service BENGALURU: By July-end, Bangalore Electricity Supply Company will complete the pilot test of their one-and-a-half-year-old smart meters project. Done in collaboration with IIT BHU (Indian Institute of Technology Banaras Hindu University), CSTEP ( Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy) and funded by the Centre’s Department of Science and Technology (DST), 1,200m were installed in Chandapura. “After the successful completion of the pilot, we will officially launch smart meters by July end. Unlike meters used in the rest of the city, these are bi-directional as they give remote readings to both the consumers and BESCOM. It will alert through SMS if the power has died or if it has been restored to both parties,” said C K Sreenath, Deputy General Manager, Smart-grid and Electric Vehicles. There are three parts to smart meters - communication system, IT server and meters. Six months ago, the remote readings became functional. “One of the benefits of smart meters which we have not implemented is automatic billing. At present, a meter reader reads each meter and approaches each individual consumer with the bill. This requires manual intervention and creates room for manual errors while reading or entering the data. This facility will be officially inaugurated by the end of next month, after which consumers in Chandapura will get SMS or email alerts of the bill,” Sreenath added. At present, manual reading takes place in Chandapura, as the testing of the communication network and IT system is still ongoing.After this pilot, another division, most likely HSR, will be chosen for the project to be implemented by BESCOM alone. Collection of data on existing meters, how to build the communication network is ongoing. This will take one and a half years to implement, post calling of tenders. After the successful completion of the pilot, we will officially launch smart meters by July end. Unlike meters used in the rest of the city, these are bi-directional as they give remote readings to both the consumers and BESCOM. It will alert through SMS if the power has died or if it has been restored to both parties C K Sreenath, Deputy General Manager, Smart-grid and Electric Vehicles

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