For the first time Bangladesh would start manufacturing smart electric prepaid meter at industrial level from this month. WZPDCL official said, that the ‘Bangladesh Smart Electric Company Limited’ has established a factory in the Khulna to manufacture the products for local consumption. The factory is a joint venture initiative of state-owned West Zone Power Distribution Company Limited, WZPDCL and internationally proven energy meter manufacturer and smart technical solution provider Hexing Electrical Company Ltd of China.
Engineer Shafique Uddin Managing Director of WZPDCL told Bangladesh Post, “We have already set-up all machineries for production of prepaid meter. Now the factory is ready for production. Currently factory decoration work is going on. Hope the production will be started by end of this month.” “Initially the production capacity of the factory is 2,000 pieces per day. Our mission is to ensure quality product at an affordable price. We are hopeful that we will be able to meet the expectation of the consumers of Bangladesh,” he added.
Once into full production, this plant will be able to support 56 percent demand of West Zone Power Distribution Company, said sources. Motiur Rahman, Sub-Divisional Engineer of WZPDCL, told Bangladesh Post “Currently, Bangladesh is depending on imports for the smart pre-paid meter. Now we can use our own product at reasonable price. The new factory will create new job opportunity. Besides, it will save foreign currency.”
“However the meter repairing will become easier and we can upgrade our technology as well," he added. In October last year, WZPDCL signed a joint venture contract with Chinese firm Hexing Electrical Co Ltd to set up a smart electric meter manufacturing plant in the country. With a promise of keeping alive the public awareness against misuse of power, WZPDCL is geared to install 5 lakh smart pre-paid meters by 2020 to facilitate its clients for paying hassle-free monthly electricity bills.
WZPDCL Superintending Engineer Mohammad Saifuzzaman told the Bangladesh Post that currently WZPDCL has 11 lakh 60 thousand clients. More than one lakh pre-paid meters have already been installed. All users will be brought under the smart pre-paid meter system in phases. He said, “WZPDCL with the help of a Chinese company is setting up a pre-paid meter factory. We want to purchase 1 lakh 70 thousand meters from the factory.”
“We have a plan to install another 9 lakh pre-paid meters under phase-2 of the project, which will start from July, 2020 and end by June, 2022. We are doing initial work to implement the project,” he added. Sources said, the prepaid metering system has been introduced nationwide aimed at convenience of the consumers and also easier bill payment system with hundred percent bill collection and electricity savings.
It is also aimed at protecting against system loss, corruption and overloading of the electricity. This will facilitate loading management with load control. The national grid electricity users in the country have crossed 3 crore 51 lakh, and are it is increasing day by day. More than eight lakh pre-paid meters have been installed. The government’s plan is to connect all the electricity users of the country to this service gradually. With that goal, 2 crore 20 lakh users will come under prepaid metering system by 2021.
