Tangedco customers may now purchase meters from independent vendors

The Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) has once again approved the purchase of meters from private companies by customers, after a five-year lapse. The electrical provider made this move in an effort to alleviate the meter deficit.

Tangedco customers have the option to buy meters from private sellers up to 2019. For administrative reasons, the electricity company then began placing meters on its own.

“We will finalize the list of approved vendors and sales points soon,” a senior Tangedco official said. The meters won’t be sent to sales locations until Tangedco’s Meter and Relay Test Wing has inspected them.

According to him, only meters with these serial numbers would be approved during inspections by the electricity company. He remarked, “Chief engineers and superintending engineers have been instructed to accept consumer-purchased meters directly only in the event that Tangedco meters are unavailable.”

“With 3.5 crore consumers and an annual increase of 5 to 8 lakh consumers, there is a growing demand for meters,” said another official. In addition, the old ones need to be replaced. As a result, we had to let private sellers to sell meters to thousands of customers around the state who had been waiting months for their installation.

Recently, Tangedco placed orders for 8.5 lakh meters, and an additional 20 lakh meters were up for bid. A few government sources, however, expressed worry, claiming that private sellers had previously supplied meters for more than the utility had set. The sources said that Tangedco had to keep an eye on the market to guarantee reasonable meter pricing.

In addition, they questioned whether Tangedco was wise to purchase thousands of meters given that it intends to ultimately convert to smart meters across Tamil Nadu.