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Most Innovative - Remote Meter Reading-West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Co.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
This is an innovative project implemented by West Bengal State Electricity Distribution
Company Limited (WBSEDCL). The company needed a solution for monitoring power consumption
of their bulk customers, where it wasn’t feasible to send a person to multiple remote
locations to collect meter readings. In some cases, readings needed to be collected on a
daily basis.
In their existing system, personnel made visits to all the consumer premises to collect
meter readings using an MRI (Meter Reading Instrument). Then, all meter information
including reading data was downloaded from MRIs to their Bulk Billing Application Package
and bills were generated. This data was also used for analysis of the Load Survey and
Phasor Diagram of bulk consumers. Energy Bills, Defaulter List, Disconnection Notice and
different reports are also generated using the same package. The entire data collection
(meter reading) process was time consuming and they were not able to generate bills and
other important reports on time. Thus came the thought of a system that could fetch meter
readings remotely. Research revealed that GSM would be the cheapest medium to connect
electric meters to the divisional office. The company had a series of consultancy sessions
with IIT Kharagpur, BSNL Kolkata, Electronic Corp. of (I) Ltd, Kolkata, and Secure Meter
Ltd.
The solution that was put in place involved connecting meters with GSM modems and BSNL
SIM cards; the meters were devised accordingly. The firmware inside the meter collects the
reading from the meter and other required data on a periodic basis and saves it.
Divisional circle and central commercial offices can fetch this information from the
meters remotely whenever required. In the central and divisional office, a PC connected
with a PSTN modem dials out to meters, which have GSM connectivity and fetches the meter
readings.
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He is working
with West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company and is responsible for execution
and implementation of this project from pilot to commercial deployment state. |
| S G Dutta, Div
Engr, IT & Comm. cell, nodal office |
This project improved the efficiency of the WBSEDCL in preventing
electricity theft and strengthened their revenue management system. |
The collected data are then fed directly to their Bulk Billing Application Package to
generate bills and other MIS reports. In addition, the meter also helps them minimize the
chances of electricity theft. If any customer tries to tamper with the meter, the modem
inside the meter instantly sends the information to the central office.
| Project Specs |
| Business
Problem: Collecting meter readings data from multiple locations took time,
resulting in delays in generating bills and other MIS reports. IT Solution: GSM modems are used with the
meters by which divisional and central commercial offices can instantly fetch meter
readings remotely.
Impact: Improved efficiency of
Revenue Management System, detection of meter tampering in real time, deploying close
vigilance.
Implementation Partner:
IIT Kharagpur, BSNL Kolkata, Electronic Corp. of (I) Ltd, Kolkata, and Secure Meter Ltd. |
This project saved time, effort, and costs of sending people to remote areas for
collecting meter data. It also helped to tackle court cases or legal battles by producing
the machine generated ?tampering events? in real time. With this system in place, WBSEDCL
can continuously monitor consumers? status and can also do instant analysis of different
consumption reports. These reports will increase the overall efficiency of the revenue
management system. The timely generation of MIS and other vital reports will also help the
administration to take decisions on vital issues. The project also benefited the State
Electricity Board to reset the power supply demand when needed remotely on the basis of
readings received from these GSM-based meters. It reduced the involvement of human
interference and now the power company can have continuous monitoring of their consumers?
status. In addition, they don?t face the problem of sending personnel over longer
distances.
The key challenge was to convince the SERC (State Electricity Regulatory Commission) to
implement this system, because according to SERC norms, meter reading can only be done in
the consumer?s presence.
Finally, WBSEDCL was able to convince them and got the green signal to implement the
system for bulk customers. They have now finished the test bed phase and are into the
commercial run phase, where meters of their bulk customers are being changed and brought
into this monitoring system.
WBSEDC is using these meters with
GSM modems
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