Our Reporter
Dimapur, Aug. 19 (EMN): After facing resistance from consumers to shift to prepaid electric metering system initially, the Power department is said to be facing a different issue now as more people are coming forward to install the device but it is out of stock.
However, a junior engineer from the department of Power in Dimapur told Eastern Mirror that prepaid meters will be soon replaced by smart prepaid electric meter, an electronic device similar to the standalone prepaid metering system.
Providing more details about the smart prepaid meter, the source informed that the device also works on recharge system, records information such as consumption of electric energy, energy levels, current and power factor.
Smart electric meter communicates information to the electricity suppliers for system monitoring and customer billing, added the junior engineer.
Manager, Universal Power Solutions (USP), Obed Kent, told this newspaper that although the prepaid meters have exhausted, the USP along with the Power department in Dimapur is trying to retrieve the devices from areas installed earlier but not in use due to unwillingness of the consumers, as the remaining meter boxes have already been commissioned. .
Kent informed that as part of a first phase, a total of 10,000 pre-paid meters were installed, which, he admitted, were less as there were consumers willing to opt for the prepaid metering system, while there are also many not willing to install the device.
On the smart prepaid metering system, he said it will be tentatively launched in the first or second week of September.