‘Blackout’ continues despite smart prepaid meter recharges

Lucknow: Abdul Kadir, 56, a resident of Chhauchh area of Lakhmipur Kheri, got his smart prepaid meter recharge for Rs 7,300 but still had to remain without electricity for 17 days.After running from pillar to post for over a fortnight, he finally got his connection restored on March 30.Goge (72) of Unnao’s Mohan Katra village and his grandson Mohammad Kaif (32) met several officials for over two weeks after which his connection was restored.In Lucknow’s Yahiyaganj, power supply to the garment store of Subir Sonkar (41) was disconnected on March 24 even after he recharged the account with Rs 8,500.

After TOI’s alert on Tuesday afternoon, MVVNL’s Lucknow central zone replaced the smart prepaid meter to restore power supply.In the above mentioned cases, officials said that the delay in restoration of connections occurred due to “technical reasons”.An internal communication of MVVNL, accessed by TOI, says that the “prolonged outage left the household in severe distress, with children in the family struggling for access to clean drinking water”.

According to a recent written communication by MVVNL’s advanced metering infrastructure service provider (AMISP) cell to three Jaipur-based smart prepaid meter providing firms, at least 764 smart prepaid meters have “never communicated” and 3,070 smart prepaid meters were “non-communicative” with the system.“Continuous rise in such cases is severely affecting consumer billing and leading to consumer dissatisfaction.

Such negligence and lack of proactive resolution is reflecting poorly on the overall project,” the letter said (TOI has a copy of the letter).In MVVNL, out of 75 lakh connections, 17.63 lakh smart prepaid meters have been installed.Managing director, MVVNL, Riya Kejriwal said, “Barring a few cases, the smart prepaid meter system is working efficiently, and our team is restoring power supply within two hours of disconnection.

Additionally, 97,720 check meters have been installed to check the functioning of smart prepaid meters. None of the smart prepaid meters were found running fast and all check meters were found in limit variation.”Despite official claims, the situation is no better in other discoms like Kesco, PUVVNL, PVVNL and DVVNL. Over 70.4 lakh prepaid smart meters have been installed in Uttar Pradesh.In Agra, sub-divisional officer Rakesh Kumar wrote to DVVNL headquarters that consumers with smart prepaid meters are without power supply.“Meter data management system (MDMS) is connected with smart prepaid meters of the consumer, yet there is no power supply,” the letter read (copy with TOI).In Hathras, SDO Ashish Ratan informed DVVNL headquarters that 832 power consumers with smart prepaid meters have stopped recharging, and their power connections should be discontinued.Following the continuous crises in efficient functioning of smart prepaid meter, member, UPERC advisory committee, and chairperson of Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad, Avadhesh Kumar Verma, has demanded that payments to smart prepaid meter supply companies should be stopped and a technical audit of all shortcomings in MDM systems, being used under the smart prepaid meter project in Uttar Pradesh, should be conducted.“MDM systems deployed across 10 power distribution clusters in the state are significantly under-capacity. As MDM is the core data processing backbone of smart metering, insufficient capacity results in delayed updates, wrong billing, negative balances, and disruption in disconnection–reconnection processes,” he said.Taking note of recurring errors in smart prepaid meters and computerized billing, state energy minister Arvind Kumar Sharma said, “Incorrect bills in a digital environment weaken public trust and must be resolved on priority.”“Time-bound redressal of billing and meter-related complaints has been ordered, with strict monitoring at every level. Also, the electricity supply must be restored immediately after bill payment,” he said.He directed the MDs of all discoms to strengthen grievance redressal mechanisms and fix clear accountability at the field level to ensure quick, ground-level solutions.In a smart meter setup (part of Advanced Metering Infrastructure), the Revenue Management System (RMS), Meter Data Management (MDM), and Head End System (HES) form the core back-end architecture. They work together to collect, process, and turn raw consumption data into accurate bills, analytics, and revenue assuranceHES is the front-line communication hub. It’s a data collector.

It directly talks to lakhs of smart meters over the AMI network. Sends commands to meters. Performs initial data integrity checks and temporarily stores raw reads.MDM sits right after HES and acts as the central brain for all meter data. It receives raw data from one or more HES systems. It runs validation, calculates billing determinants and supports advanced functions: load profiling, forecasting, anomaly/tamper detection, revenue protection.While RMS is the commercial-revenue layer that uses the processed data from MDM to generate revenue. It takes validated billing determinants from MDM. Applies customer tariffs, contracts, and rules to calculate bills. Handles customer accounts, invoicing, payments, adjustments, and collections. Supports revenue assurance (theft detection, loss analysis), credit management, and customer self-service portals.