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Delhi Set To Lead The Way India moving to Time-of-Day metering

Em News Bureau ,  Thursday, August 16, 2012, 16:53 Hrs  [IST]

In what could be a defining milestone in India's power distribution sector, Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has decided to introduce time-ofday (ToD) metering on pilot basis. When implemented, Delhi will be the first state in the country to have such a metering system. ToD metering is being implemented with a view to discourage or limit power consumption during peak hours. Consumers will be charged differential tariffs for electricity used in peak and off-peak hours. The move, initially to be applicable to consumers with a load of 300 kW of higher, can potentially flatten the peak power curve to a large extent.

Interacting with Electrical Monitor on the technical and implementation aspects of ToD metering, Ramesh Narayanan, CEO, BSES Yamuna Power Ltd, explained, "Building consumer awareness so that the consumers find the process simple and easy to avail will be a huge practical challenge." On the technical front, all the equipment at BYPL including consumer meters are ToD metering-compliant, he said. Part of Reliance ADA Group, BYPL is one of the three private distribution utilities in Delhi, the others being group company BSES Rajdhani, and Tata Group-owned North Delhi Power Ltd.

In Delhi, peak demand met has almost doubled from 2,879 mw to 5,642 mw over the past decade. Growth in power demand has increased by 25 per cent in BYPL's area of East and Central Delhi. In rest of Delhi, comparable growth in power demand has been 10 per cent. In the summer of 2012, BYPL met its highestever peak demand of 1,413 mw. When BYPL took over power distribution from DESU in July 2002, the peak demand stood at just 798 mw.

Discussing how ToD meter could help flatten Delhi's demand load curve, Narayanan noted, "Our power demand is very high from 9am to 11pm and is goes down drastically in off-peak hours. ToD metering would act as a trigger for consumers to efficiently use power and use appliances at off-peak hours to reduce Delhi's peak demand." Unmanageable growth in peak power demand has often compelled Indian power utilities to effect load shedding in residential areas.

The National Electricity Policy and National Tariff Policy have envisaged that state regulatory commissions introduce ToD metering in order to reduce peak power demand.

In a general sense, ToD metering, sometimes known as Time of Usage (ToU) metering is a rate option that is offered by utilities to consumers. When elected, the existing energy meter may need to be replaced by a smart meter that can record demand, time, usage, etc. Narayanan is of the view that any power utility—be it private or public—is equipped to handle ToD metering provided the meters in use are electronic and have built-in ToD metering features.

The concept of ToD metering is very popular in developed countries like UK, USA, Canada, Japan, etc. ToD metering seeks to flatten the load curve by distributing power demand throughout the day. ToD metering is perhaps the most efficient demand-side management. When generally accepted by consumers and implemented effectively by utilities, the ToD metering culture can go a long way in obviating investment in setting up new power generation capacity and associated T&D infrastructure.

It is interesting to observe that Delhi that has been a forerunner of power sector reforms is also set to usher ToD metering in India. Ramesh Narayanan more than agrees and asserts, "Be it intra-state UI (unscheduled interchange) mechanism, PPP in distribution or KVaH billing, Delhi has always been a trendsetter, and will continue to be!"
 
                 
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