Anil Rawal, CEO of IntelliSmart, a joint venture of NIIF and ESSL, which is working on a project to implement sensible electrical energy meters across India, tells Vikas Srivastava about the progress of the project. He says, India can save Rs 9.5 lakh crore by investing Rs 1.25 lakh crore for replacing 25 crore standard meters. Excerpts:
What has been the progress on sensible meters soon after the FY21 Budget emphasised on replacement of standard meters?
Of the investment commitment by electrical energy discoms more than the final two years which includes the Rs 3 lakh crore announced in the Budget 2021, sensible metering was a big element. The proposed investments may perhaps be sufficient. There are, on the other hand, challenges on the implementation front. Concerns concerning modalities about bidding for sensible meters and the Covid-19 pandemic impacted the work on ground. The B2C firms with direct interface with shoppers got badly impacted for the duration of Covid. The government not too long ago addressed the issues connected to bidding by introducing the regular bidding document. However, adoption continues to be a challenge.
We are presently operating in six states and have an order book of 8 million sensible meters out of which we have installed about 1.6 million meters.
What is your small business model and how does it assistance discoms?
We operate on the so-referred to as OpEx model, which is a standard construct-operate-transfer (BOT) model, equivalent to different PPP projects run by the government. In this case we invest the cash and set up the sensible meters without the need of charging any cash. Once the meters are commissioned the utilities get started saving on the AT&C losses to the tune of Rs 225 per meter per month on an typical. We charge anyplace among Rs 75- one hundred per meter per month. So these sensible meters develop into an instrument of spend as you save. Under this model the discoms are not investing something and spend the charges by way of savings they make.
There are also other players in the field in the nation. How is the industry for sensible metering options evolving?
We have different partners who are working with us. We are working with yet another operator — EDF — in Bihar, In Rajasthan with Bosch, and in UP and Haryana we are working with L&T. They are our contractors and assistance in executing the projects, whilst we invest and take the danger. The sensible meters are really regulated appliances simply because they bear a government of India regular labels which are notified and certified by CEA. So our contract especially mentions that the meters must be CEA regular compliant.
What is the pricing differential among standard and sensible meters, and how quickly the utilities breakeven on the expense?
This is a spend-as-you-save model. The break-even occurs the extremely 1st day discoms get started making use of the meters. So it is not a query of break-even but return on investment.
At present India loses about 30% of its energy generated due to transmission, distribution, billing generation and collection inefficiencies. Implementation of 25 crore sensible meters across India would entail an investment of Rs 1.25 lakh crore by discoms. But, they will save about Rs 9.5 lakh crore on losses if investment is carried out on project finance basis. There is a confirmed record and information with us to back this claim from 16 lakh sensible meters installed by us.
What are the challenges in implementing sensible meters?
The discoms are employing the capex model that is not effective. As they set up handful of thousand meters on capex mode, it requires away their worthwhile funds that can be invested into network correction. Small quantity of sensible meters generate information islands that fail to serve the objective of digitalisation. Discoms must break the inertia of resisting the adoption of OpEx model as it can be levered into a number of lakhs of meters. Here, the investment is carried out by IntelliSmart that is backed by sovereign wealth fund NIIF.