Hyderabad : Prepaid electricity meters have been installed in government offices. Gone are the days when government offices used power like it was free. Fans and air-conditioners ran indiscriminately for indefinite hours. But with the state government reigning in power usage to cut down wastage, the scenario in government offices will soon be very different.
TS Southern Power Distribution Company has installed prepaid rechargeable electricity meters in place of regular meters in 250 government offices in the Central circle, which includes GHMC limits.
Discom officials said that like with any pre-paid system, if the office consumes its prepaid amount it can recharge it for another 48 hours. The discom is sending circulars to such government offices asking for one-month charges to be paid in advance as per the pre-paid norm.
Government departments have been defaulting on bill payments with arrears running into Rs 1,600 crore, of which more than Rs 1,000 crore was from gram panchayats. With the prepaid meters the departments can consume only as much power as they have paid for in advance.
The state requires about 22,000 prepaid meters if all government offices are to have pre-paid meters. Discom has given the contract to four companies to supply the meters. It is expected tha-t within a month, all government offices will have prepaid meters. After government offices in GHMC limits are covered, it will be the turn of those in the district hea-dquarters and gram panchayats.
A senior official of Energy Department said, “A majority of the government offices were wasting power by using it indiscriminately. Whether officers are in the offices or not all fans, lights, ACs are always on till the end of the day.
After introduction of prepaid meters every de-partment has to make provision in the budget to purchase power according to their requirement. With this there will be no arrears from any government department. After reaching the prepaid limit, the supply of power will stop automatically.”
