Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is replacing all of the old electricity meters being used in the Kathmandu valley with smart meters.

According to the NEA, it has completed necessary preparation to call for tender bids to purchase 600,000 units of smart meters for this purpose. Kulman Ghising, managing director of the NEA, said they have finalized the bidding documents and will start the process soon.

Ghising said the NEA’s plan to install the smart meters in households and offices in the valley was delayed due to NEA’s inability to get frequency on time and lack of adequate number of such devices. According to him, they will call for bidding right after the elections slated for Sunday.

On September 29, the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology issued notice in the Nepal Gazette permitting the NEA to use three frequency bandwidths from 396.5 MHz to 399.5 MHz to install the smart meters. For this purpose, the NEA needs to pay Rs 12 million to the government.

Smart meters are advanced meter devices that enable households to get a regular and accurate view of electricity consumption. Besides ensuring high-quality electricity supply, the smart meters also eliminate the need to use voltage stabilisers, and facilitate faster recovery from power outages. The smart meters also enable automated billing system so meter readers will not have to visit individual houses each month and give bills to the customers.

Under its pilot project, the NEA has already installed smart meters for its 98,000 customers under the Ratnapark and Maharajgunj distribution centers. The public utility has estimated an expense of Rs 5 billion to materialize this plan.

The NEA is implementing this project under concessional loans from the Asian Development Bank. It has targeted to replace all the traditional meters in the valley by the advanced device within the next three years.