CHANDIGARH: Union Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday asked state governments to saturate the installation of prepaid smart meters in all government establishments, including government colonies by August this year .He also said the states to complete the installation of smart meters for commercial and industrial consumers by November. Addressing the Regional Conference for the Northern Region States and UTs here, the minister underlined the importance of a future-ready, modern, and financially viable power sector to fuel the country’s growth. The Union Power minister also underlined the importance of a future-ready, modern, and financially viable power sector to fuel the country’s growth on its journey towards becoming a developed nation.Khattar said that smart meters have the potential to change how consumers interact with electricity providers by using data analytics powered by AI and machine learning tools. These features, built into smart meter applications, can help users make better energy choices and benefit from more efficient energy use.”India has successfully met a peak demand of 250 GW in May 2024 and has transformed from power-deficit to a power-sufficient nation, and as of today, peak demand shortage is zero,” he said adding that the growth of the power sector is important for achieving the goal of ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047.The minister said the states should, while meeting their resource adequacy plan, should also work on having adequate power generation mix including addition of nuclear generation capacity. India’s peak electricity demand is projected to reach 446 GW by 2034–35, and this sustainably requires proactive planning and continued coordination between the Centre, States, and stakeholders.On the issue of power reliability, Khattar highlighted the importance of cybersecurity and “islanding schemes” to help prevent outages due to cyber threats and to make the power grid more resilient. Calling the distribution sector the most critical link in the power value chain, Khattar said it continues to face major challenges due to poor tariff structures, inefficient billing and collections, and delays in payments by government departments. He said it is important to reduce AT&C (Aggregate Technical and Commercial) losses and the gap between the cost of supply and the revenue collected. He urged states to work with Electricity Regulatory Commissions for cost-reflective tariffs and timely tariff revisions. “Losses of utilities today add to cost of power for consumers and also deteriorate the delivery of services to consumers, and further, continued losses have a cascading effect,” he said.Khattar also called on distribution companies to speed up work under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme to improve efficiency and smart infrastructure. He said the delay in payment of government dues and subsidies continues to affect the financial health of utilities, with some states still behind on dues from the 2023–24 financial year and wider gaps seen in the current year.
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