The Odisha government has taken an effective and strong initiative to bring reform in the power system by introducing prepaid power meter, which will be installed at all the state-run offices from April. The system will check heavy electricity consumption and bring transparency in Bill payment.
Like West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, the Prepaid Energy Meters will help the state Energy department to warn the government offices, which are consuming heavy electricity for which the state suffers from shortage of power.
Support Independent Journalism? Keep us live.
The programme will be completed by the end of this year. As per the decision, the Prepaid Energy Meters will be installed at all the government offices covering the Panchayats, Blocks, and district level offices. The programme can be extended for common consumers in future to check power theft in the state after the successful implementation. With this system, paying bills will no longer be a problem.
Now, the government offices cannot avoid the bill payment and nor they will face disconnection any more. With the implementation of the system, the offices will have to recharge their power voucher in the Month end like mobile phone. The prepaid power meter will have a card like mobile SIM. If the office fails to recharge its voucher, power will be disconnected automatically. Software in the meter will check the misutilisation of the power in the office.
The meter, which costs Rs 5000, will be available only at the Energy department. The offices will have to purchase the meters in instalment. The programme was scheduled to start from April 1, on the eve of Utkal Diwas. However, no bidding has taken place yet. The government has invited the companies for tender on April 22. The government will pay the electricity dues to GRIDCO by the end of this month to implement the system at all the offices. So, consume the power as much as you pay!!!