Tata Power app to help track daily consumption

In a first, Tata Power consumers in Delhi will soon be able track their daily electricity consumption and find out the reasons for technical fault in transmi-ssion line with the company working on a Rs 100-crore project to modernise its communication network.

Under the one-of-its-kind initiative, the Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd. (TPDDL) will introduce smart meters so that its consumers can better understand their energy usage. The company has floated a global tender to rope in world’s leading tech giant for its ambitious project.

According to TPDDL CEO and managing director Praveer Sinha, the domestic consumers will be able to use an app in their smartphones to access a host of information such as consumption during peak and off-peak hours, details of consumption for any period in the current fiscal compared to corresponding period a year ago, etc.

The company has an initial plan to cover 7.5 lakh consumers under the project, which is likely to rolled out early next year. The TPDDL has a consumer base of 15.5 lakh which includes consumers in the commercial category.

Mr Sinha said the company is going to invest Rs 100 crore in modernising the communication network. He said that smart metering will significantly help the company root out power theft and other leakages.

According to him, the TPDDL is also augmenting its infrastructure for introduction of the time-of-day metering (TOD), which involves dividing the day, month and year into tariff slots and with higher rates at peak load periods and low tariff rates at off-peak load periods.

Delhi’s power regulator DERC has planned to introduce TOD, a concept borrowed from European countries, under which price of power is much lower in off-peak hours of the day compared to peak hours of 7 to 10 pm.