The Dhaka Electric Supply Company Ltd (Desco) will provide smart pre-payment meters to all its customers by 2023.
Desco Managing Director Kausar Ameer Ali made the disclosure while addressing a webinar on “Challenges After Achieving 100% Electricity Coverage” on Sunday evening.
“Once the smart pre-payment meters are installed, consumers would not need to go to vending stations to pay their bills. Rather, they will be able to recharge their account using their own gadgets from both home and abroad," Kawsar Ameer Ali told the webinar.
He also informed that the company has taken a move to take its 133kV overhead electricity lines to underground by 2023.
Initially, installation work of such underground cable will start in Gulshan area under a pilot project and then gradually such project will be implemented in others areas.
In this regard, the Mohakhali to Airport road will get priority, he added.
Mollah Amzad Hossain, editor of Energy & Power magazine, conducted the webinar.
The virtual seminar was also addressed by Bikash Dewan, managing director of Dhaka Power Distribution Company Ltd, (DPDC), Helal Uddin, Vice President of Bangladesh Shop Owners Association, Shahedul Islam Helal, former president of Bangladesh Chamber of Industries (BCI) and Ariful Haque Suhan, vice chairman of Reverie Power & Automation Engineering.
Bikash Dewan said DPDC has also taken up projects to take its overhead electricity lines to underground and the first project will be implemented in Dhanmondi area.
“But this job has been a great challenge for DPDC as a big area its power distribution is old part of the city which power networks go through a very narrow areas," he said adding that the distribution company has to think about alternative arrangements and technologies considering the characteristics of those areas.
Meanwhile, Shahedul Islam said although power supply improved with increased generation, uninterrupted and quality power supply has not been ensured.
“As industry operators, we have to bear a huge cost for interruption in electricity supply as it creates problems in production," he said.
Helal Uddin said both the distribution companies are providing single meter for each customers in big shopping malls. As a result, shop owners have to pay higher rate of electricity.
“Once an individual meter is installed, it'll reduce the electricity cost," he said.
