Report of Indian Institute of Public Administration ... - Ministry of Power

Maharashtra
at the consumer end meters/DTC meters, etc, at regular intervals (other than for billing
purposes) to cross-check the meter reading appearing in the billing data.
Earlier it was reported in the press that Minister (Energy) had desired that the
DISCOM would outsource the meter reading activity to Industrial Training Institutes
(ITI) in the State and that, the students of these institutes will take readings for one
month and the departmental staff in the subsequent month. ITI will give part of money
received from the DISCOM to students and will retain part of it to itself. This process
will ensure checking of readings taken by departmental staff by the ITI students and
vice versa every month. This scheme should be given a sincere trial as it serves the
objective of checking of readings recorded by one set of meter readers by the other. It
would also provide financial help to needy students and thus serve a social cause.
ENERGY AUDIT
This is one of the most important resources, which, if used effectively, can help the
Utilities to quickly regain sound financial health with the minimum need for major
investments. The investments needed for this in the immediate future will only be for
defining a foolproof information system and costs towards a maximum number of
some two to three lakh electronic precision energy meters in the MSEDCL area (to be
provided for all DTCs, all EHV transformers supplying energy to distribution
company to record energy flows in primary and secondary, all bays for EHV
consumers, all 33 kV and 11 kV feeders, both sides of 33/11 kV transformers, etc.). In
fact, the number will only be less not more, as some meters may already be in place.
Such electronic meters record many parameters besides energy, such as kVArh, kVA,
power factor, etc., and can also be interfaced with a Data Acquisition System (DAS).
Installation of a DAS should be planned for all EHV substations as well as important
33 kV, 11 kV sub-stations feeding express industrial feeders/MIDC areas, etc., to
monitor and record important data such as status, manual switching/tripping on fault
of circuit breakers, hourly recording of energy flows, kVA demand, power factors,
parameters for monitoring health of transformers and important sub-station auxiliaries,
etc. At pre-defined intervals, such recorded hourly information could be transmitted
over data channels to assigned centres for analyses. In this process, human
intervention in recording the energy meter readings manually should be done away
with. This database will eventually form the input for the Energy Audit Module of the
computerised Information System described earlier.
10.9