Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh government has decided to introduce pre-paid electricity meters. In the first phase, these meters will be fixed in government offices.
Uttar Pradesh, Arunac-hal Pradesh, West Bengal and Delhi governments are already using these meters and the AP government is now adopting the same to regulate energy consumption.
During a video conference with district officials on Thursday, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu informed that the government would introduce pre-paid electricity meters in government offices.
According to energy officials, the meters will be available for Rs 2,600.
AP discoms will fix the monthly consumption of each government office on the basis of previous bills. The meters will have buzzers to alert consumers when the quota is over and power supply will be stopped till it is recharged.
Like mobile phones, one will be able to buy recharge vouchers for the meters for denominations of Rs 500, Rs 200 and Rs 100.
One advantage of the system is that consumers will not need to queue at billing counters to pay their electricity bills as they can recharge as and when required.
Energy department officials also said that the system would help them keep a tab on power theft.
After installing the meters in government offices, the Andhra Pradesh government wants to implement it across the state for all consumers.
The Centre has directed state governments to follow this system to bring down the aggregate technical and commercial losses to as low as possible.
