L&T to increase production of energy meters

The Electrical and Automation Unit of Larsen and Toubro (L&T), Mysore will be increasing production capacity of energy meters to 4.5 million per year, said S C Bhargava, Senior Vice President, Head of Electrical and Automation, L&T.

With an existing production capacity of three million energy meters per year, Bhargava said that the company had manufactured seven million energy meters during the last 10 years.

Expressing optimism, Bhargava said that the business had grown at a rate of 20 per cent during the last four years. He said that the growth will continue to be in the 20-25 per cent range in the next four-five years.

Observing that energy consumption in the country is quite low, Bhargava said that the companies have to increase consumption and make electricity available to all people.

With L&T having been in the production of standalone energy meters, the next step is to produce interconnected energy meters with central console.

Observing the need for a central console, he said that distribution losses are so high because a lot of the energy generated goes unmetered. He said that their aim is to make sure that energy gets metered.

He said that there is a need to reduce distribution losses from the current 30 per cent to less than 15 per cent as per the initiatives taken by the Government of India.

Also the introduction of electronic meters provides far more accurate energy calculation than the previously used electro-mechanical meters. He said that the energy meters being produced in the country are of international standards.

He said that meters in future will be able to obtain alarms on discrepancies, theft and will be able to curtail the consumption remotely.

Bhargava said that L&T is the second largest manufacturer of single phase meters in the country. He said that it is also the only electronic meter manufacturer in the State.

Senior Vice President, Head of Electrical and Automation, L&T, S C Bhargava said that L&T is operating two projects for Mescom in Mangalore and Gescom in Gulbarga for collecting data from meters connected to distribution transformers. He said that the data is compared with the billing data of consumers and used for reduction of losses in the feeders.