SHILLONG, Oct 10: Newly-appointed Power Minister, Prestone Tynsong has directed Satnam Global to put on hold the implementation of smart meters across Meghalaya thereby vindicating the stand of NGOs who have been demanding the same for some time.
The decision was taken during a recent review meeting of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) and Power Department, a reliable source told The Shillong Times.
Apparently peeved with the slow progress and failure of the contractor Satnam Global from Delhi to commission a single smart meter even after 6 months of issuing work order, Tynsong said that till the time contractor starts generating bills for the already installed smart meters no new meters shall be installed anywhere in the state.
Repeated attempts to confirm this from the Power Minister were unsuccessful as both his phones were switched off but sources in the MeECL say that Tynsong is agitated about the smart meters saying that there are a lot of problems in the smart meters and those need to be resolved first in order to improve the financial health of the Corporation.
It may be recalled that Satnam Global had got the Chief Engineer SB Umdor and Director (Distribution) Mohan Chetri to issue a false and illegal completion certificate for installation of 25,000 smart meters in Meghalaya presumably to make them qualify for similar smart meter tenders in other states.
The MeECL Associations and Unions had taken strong exception to this. Later, the Chief Engineer issued a press release saying there is nothing wrong with the completion certificate issued to the contractor.
This reporter spoke to several domain experts who confirmed that till the time smart meters are connected to Head End System (HES) and Meter Data Management (MDM) and the whole system is integrated with the billing software, smart meter installations cannot be said to have been completed and commissioned. This is exactly what the ADB consultant had said in their report submitted to MeECL to prove that meters have not been successfully installed.
The fact is that MeECL top bosses issued a false completion certificate to Satnam in spite of ADB’s adverse report points to engineer-contractor nexus. However, no action was taken by the government against engineers for this brazen act.
Also, the unique feature of smart meters is their ability to generate electricity bills remotely without the help of a meter reader. Sources say not even a single smart meter bill has been generated by Satnam Global thus putting a big question mark on the ADB-funded Rs 250 crore mega project which was supposed to turn around the flailing Corporation.
It will be interesting to see whether the new Minister will display courage in blacklisting Satnam Global who was dictating things in the beleaguered Corporation during the previous minister, James Sangma’s tenure and bring in a credible company with experience of executing such smart meter works in other parts of the country such as Energy Efficiency Service Limited (EESL), among others, said an Association member.