Time and again, electricity consumers have been raising the issue of fast running meters leading to inflated bills. This issue has once again been raised by a NGO Chetna when its members met power department officials on the issue of testing of meters announced recently by the Delhi Government. Members of NGO said that meters run fast as they record the current flowing in the neutrals too. NGO has asked the power department to ask the experts to keep fast running of meters in mind when they test the 10,000 odd meters. The power department has written to a number of universities and institutes, including IIT Delhi, DTU, NSIT to conduct a third party inspection of the meters.
What surprises me is that no body has talked about BIS which has prepared the Indian standard for these meters – IS 13779: 1999, which is equivalent to the International standard, IEC 61036: 1996. Since its publication, BIS has issued 4 amendments, and with these amendments has reaffirmed the standard in September 2009.
BIS should investigate why these meters are recording the current flowing in the neutrals. Is it a design defect or some manufacturing defect or some precautions not taken while installing these meters? The consumers are loosing lot of money on this account. I am also surprised why no consumer organization has raised this issue, and what Ministry of Consumer Affairs is doing to protect the interest of consumers.
It will be advisable for BIS to take up a R&D project to review its standard whether all related design aspects have been taken care of while finalizing the standard. Have any test methods been provided in the standard to determine whether neutrals are carrying any current or not? Has it been ensured that a standard test method is provided in the standard for on-site inspection and whether results of such on-site inspection relate to laboratory testing.
Energy meters are under mandatory certification of BIS. It has granted 95 licenses including one in China and one in Hungry. The minimum marking fee charged from the licensees is Rs. 168200.00 from large scale units and 148200.00 from small scale units for each operative year. This brings minimum Rs. 1.40 Crores a year to BIS calculated at the rate for small scale units. It will not be unjustified to ask BIS to spend some of it in R&D.
Consumers are suffering because of inflated bills. Power tariff is also increasing now and then. It is time Govt of India, Delhi Govt and BIS do something about it.
