The Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) has announced a considerable upgrade in the metering system. The company will no longer provide three-phase meters to consumers. Instead, LESCO will now install new meters using the Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) technology.
This is part of LESCO’s change in its plan to modernize its service and provide more accurate billing. The new AMR meters are some of the most advanced devices currently on the market, giving exact meter readings. This will help reduce overbilling and make it very difficult to steal electricity.
But the new AMR meters are more expensive than the old ones. The difference between the old three-phase and the new AMR meters will mean consumers will pay about Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000. Altogether, a new AMR meter would cost Rs 42,000, inclusive of installation.
While the installation of an AMR system is quite expensive, it also comes with these benefits:
- Proper Billing: With accurate readings of the AMR meters, there is no question that consumers will be overbilled.
- Less Electricity Theft: The new meters are more tamper-proof, which makes it difficult to steal electricity.
- Online Bill Payment: The consumers’ bills are made online; hence, it is convenient and less laborious for the consumers.
- Modern Technology: It uses AMR meters, an innovation in this sector, thus improving the convenience of services.
The change comes after a similar exercise was conducted and found success as LESCO replaced the bidirectional meters in solar systems and fitted AMR meters. Likely, this success may have contributed to the reason this project is expanding in its use of AMR technology. AMR meters are a great leap for LESCO in terms of the infrastructure and services provided to its customers.