DHAKA, Aug 6, 2018 (BSS) – The Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited (DESCO) has initiated a move to implement a Taka 186.50 crore project to supply and install some 2 lakh smart pre-payment meters in DESCO area to further improve its services to the clients.
“The Planning Commission has already considered a draft project proposal to this end sent from the Power Division and it will be placed before the ECNEC meeting tomorrow for its consideration,” said a senior Planning Commission official.
Prime Minister and ECNEC Chairperson Sheikh Hasina will preside over the meeting to be held at the NEC Conference Room in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area.
The official told BSS that the DESCO under the Power Division will implement the project by December 2020. “Out of the total project cost of Taka 186.50 crore, Taka 178.52 crore will come from the GoB portion while the rest of Taka 7.97 crore from the DESCO’s own fund.”
The Planning Commission official said the main objectives of the project include further improving the standards of client services by the DESCO through digitization as well as load controlling and improving the revenue realization management.
“The project also aims at realizing revenue in advance, lowering the non-technical loss at zero level, simplifying the demand side load controlling management, and reducing the misuse of electricity,” the official said adding that online load management, monitoring and trouble-shooting system will also be introduced under the project.
According to the Draft Project Proposal (DPP), the project area covers Mirpur, Pallabi, Agargaon, Kafrul, Shah Ali, Dhaka Cantonment, Gulshan, Banani, Baridhara, Badda, Uttara, Uttarkhan, Dakshinkhan and Tongi.
The project operations include installation of some 1.80 lakh single phase smart pre-payment meters alongside installation of some 20,000 three-phase smart pre-payment meters, installation of two meter testing phase and installation of online network for giving connectivity to some 2 lakh smart pre-payment meters.
Beginning its journey on September 24 in 1998 with limited operations in the Mirpur area having a load demand of only 90 MW and some 71,161 clients, the operations of DESCO has expanded a lot with the passage of time as the number of clients has now reached 8.65 lakh with the highest demand of power raising to 934 MW.
Under the current system, the DESCO has to manage huge manpower and consume much more time for collecting meter reading from its clients, preparing the electricity bills and supplying those bills at clients’ level.
Technical and non-technical system loss also happens due to the use of mechanical and electro mechanical system. Under this system, there is impact on the efficiency of meter discs, accurate meter reading if often unavailable due to low load, even it is not possible to conduct load management and give early warning.
Under the present circumstances, the project has been framed and considered at the Pre-Evaluation Committee (PEC) meetings twice held on June 4 and July 26 this year where the Planning Commission recommended implementation of the project.