The Uttar Pradesh government has installed smart prepaid meters on the premises of a total of 2.69 crore consumers so far under the Central government’s Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS).

It is noteworthy here that a notification was issued by the Centre in 2021 under the RDSS to provide quality and uninterrupted power supply to the consumers of the state through an efficient and strong distribution system. Through this, the government aims to bring down distribution losses from 12 to 15 percent by 2024-25 through the scheme.

Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) Chairman M Devraj informed on Friday that a total of Rs 18,885.48 crore has been approved by the government of India for the installation of the smart meters, of which 15 per cent of the sanctioned amount, i.e. Rs 2,832.82 crore, is provided as a grant and the remaining Rs 16,052.66 crore will be funded by the state government and the distribution corporation.

He informed that Rs 16,498.61 crore has been sanctioned by the Centre for strengthening the power system and reducing distribution losses, of which 60 per cent (Rs 9,899.17 crore) will be provided as a grant by the Centre and the remaining 40 per cent ( Rs 6,599.44 crore) by the state government and the distribution corporation.

For loss reduction, 2.71 lakh km of armoured cabling was used for providing connections, construction of 15,000 km of LT line with armoured cable, replacement of 1.18 lakh km of open wire LT line with AB cable, extension of 35,000 km 11 KV lines, and 16,000 km 11 KV feeder separation works were carried out.

According to Devraj, proposals worth Rs 18,916.20 crore have been sent to the Government of India for modernisation of the electricity distribution system and the approval is expected in the next financial year. Of this proposed amount, 60 per cent (Rs 11,349 crore) will be funded by the Government of India and the remaining 40 per cent (Rs 7,566.4 crore) will be funded by the state government and the distribution corporation.

The proposed main works of modernization include the construction of 593 new sub-stations of 33/11 KV, capacity enhancement of 1511 sub-stations of 33/11 KV, construction of about 10,000 km of new 33 KV lines, installation of 76,000 distribution transformers, construction of about 22,000 km 11 KV line, construction of about 15,000 km LT line, capacity enhancement work of one lakh distribution transformers and 14 SCADA/DMS in urban areas.