Industrial Automation Magazine India

Safety, quality and design should be the key for manufacturing smart meters

Published on : Saturday 05-11-2022

Mr Alok Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Power was speaking at the Metering India 2022 – the flagship event of IEEMA.

 

New Delhi, November 04, 2022 – The 9th edition of Metering India 2022 event was inaugurated by Shri Alok Kumar, Secretary of Ministry of Power, Government of India at Hotel Taj Palace, New Delhi.

  Safety, Quality and Design should be the key for manufacturing Smart Meters. I urge the manufacturers to think of innovative ways to reduce the price of the meters to half without compromising on quality. We have improved the loss reduction aspect and are working on the expansion of the RDSS scheme and smart distribution. IEEMA should mainly focus on three areas, firstly focus on consumers and make smart meters affordable; secondly capacity building of the utilities; and lastly finding opportunity to change conventional meters into smart meters with sustainable disposing,  stated Mr Alok Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Power during IEEMA's flagship event Metering India 2022.

 Mr Rohit Pathak, President, IEEMA and CEO, Birla Copper Hindalco Industries Limited, articulated,  Smart Meter is a key enabler for India's transition to an electrified, digital, sustainable and net zero economy. We must focus on the 'smart' of smart meter to help enhance consumer experience, drive analytics enabled efficient use of electricity and help make the Grid more reliable as the share of RE increases in accordance with Vision 2047.

 Mr Hamza Arsiwala, President Elect, IEEMA and Chairman & Managing Director Stelmec Limited opined,  The industry must focus on the holy trinity of Quality, Reliability and Safety. We as a nation have untapped potential in manufacturing and we have to collectively work towards becoming a strong hub for engineered goods and services in the near future.

 Mr Sunil Singhvi, Vice President, IEEMA and CEO energy SBU, Secure Meters Limited shared,  Today, we have modern and automated manufacturing processes with a strong focus on meeting international standards and specifications, the electrical components and systems manufactured in India are matching the international level of quality and performance. In addition to these, product innovation, standards that ensure long term comfort to consumers is important. We will also have to further work on expanding our global footprint.

 Mr Amit Kumar, Chairman, IEEMA Meter Division and Vice President, Schneider Electric India Private Limited stated,  Smart metering transformation will enable the Indian utilities to react to the change, harness the present and chart the future of a sustainable digital ecosystem. The combined production capacity of Indian Meter Industry is more than 100 Million Smart Meters per annum which itself is sufficient to meet the Government of India's target of deploying 250 Million under RDSS by 2025.

 The two-day conference scheduled from November 3rd - 4th, 2022 deliberates on the opportunities and upcoming new technologies to make the most of the opportune moment. The event witnessed the presence of more than 500 delegates from more than 75 utilities, PSUs and Government Institutions and 20 technical papers will be presented in 5 sessions on diverse topics and 4 panel discussions.

 Detailed caption: (L to R): Manish C. Swamie, Sunil Singhvi, Vice President, IEEMA, Rohit Pathak, President, IEEMA, Alok Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Power, Govt. of India, Hamza Arsiwala, President Elect, IEEMA, Amit Kumar, Chairman, IEEMA Meter Division, Jitendra Kumar Agarwal, Chairman ELECRAMA 2023,  Peter Jensen, Senior Researcher, EDF, France (IEC – Chair TC -13)