Vi joins hand with EESL for Advanced Metering Infrastructure project

Govt. of India under its RDSS Scheme has recently charted out a plan to replace 25 Crore conventional electric meters with smart meters across India. Taking ahead GOI’s mission of replacing conventional meters with smart meters, Vi Business, the enterprise arm of India’s leading telecom operator, Vodafone Idea (Vi), has been in partnership with EESL to provide fully secured, IoT enabled Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)for DISCOMS in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

Under the partnership, Vi Business has already installed 16.7 lakhs IoT enabled smart meters for DISCOMS. The Vi IoT enabled Smart Meters have resulted insubstantial improvement in monthly meter readings. The deployment of Smart Meters have also helped in improving billing and collection efficiency and has led to huge upside revenue for the DISCOMS thereby improving their financial standing.

Arvind Nevatia, Chief Enterprise Business Officer, Vodafone Idea says, “We are delighted to partner with EESL as their Advanced Metering Infrastructure communication partner and contribute to the Govt. of India’s efforts towards the adoption of smart meters. This partnership reiterates Vi Business’s commitment in offering tailor-made, smooth and fully secured IoT solutions which enables robust business efficiency and growth. The Vi IoT enabled Smart Meters minimizes human intervention in the overall metering, billing and collection process and helps reduce theft by identifying loss pockets. We look forward to a successful partnership with EESL and DISCOMS.”

Appreciating Vi Business’ product efficiency, Arun Kumar Mishra, CEO, EESL said, “EESL is deploying India's first large-scale smart metering project under the Smart Meter National Programme (SMNP), in states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, New Delhi and Andaman. EESL has taken IoT Services from Vodafone Idea for the network connectivity in DISCOM of UP and Haryana. EESL smart meters are transforming India's energy landscape by increasing billing and collection efficiency; reducing operation and maintenance costs; enhancing the quality of services and providing consumers with demand side management (DSM) options.

As on date, 16.7 lacs smart meters have successfully been installed, with 5.16 lacs for DISCOMs in Haryana and 11.55 Lacs for DISCOMs in UP. These smart meters are being installed on Vi loT technology, which delivers secure and quality communication services. It has led to huge revenue upside and improved financial standing for the DISCOMs in these regions. EESL is extremely satisfied to have Vodafone Idea Limited as its AMI communications partner. We look forward to replicating these successful stories on AMI projects, pan India.”