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Residents satisfied with prepaid meters
By Tiffanne Ramphal
A newly installed prepaid meter at a Non Pareil home
Two weeks after homes in Non Pareil and Enterprise, East Coast Demerara, were stripped of their electricity meters by Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL)’s loss reduction team, residents have expressed satisfaction with the Prepaid Metering System that they have been issued.
During a loss reduction campaign in the area earlier this month, 34 post-paid meters were removed from homes by GPL staffers who, upon examination of the instruments, concluded that they were tampered for the purpose of hampering the accurate recording of electricity consumed.
Following investigations by the company’s officials to ascertain the accuracy of the team’s report, meters were found with distinct signs of either tampering or being bypassed.
Residents were subsequently required to pay specific fees customized to their consumption and various appliances in order to have their homes repowered, after which they were issued prepaid meters.
Loss Reduction Operations Manager, Wayne Watson, on Monday told Kaieteur News that although the prepaid meters do not totally eliminate incidences of electricity theft, they do reduce the possibility of the occurrence since the perpetrators would have to access the system from the utility poles to perform the illegal task. He said it is unlikely that someone would clamber up a utility pole to interfere with the electricity system in the line of view of practically everyone.
Watson added that from a loss reduction perspective, in terms of security, there is comfort in knowing that the prepaid systems cannot be accessed easily and thus are not easily exposed to tampering.
According to Watson, the prepaid meter poses further economic benefits to the company which would, in turn, help in some way to reduce commercial losses. In contrast to the old system, where the service is rendered then paid for, the new system requires consumers to pay before they receive electricity. This evidently strikes out the incidence of loss where the service is rendered, but the balance due is either delayed or unpaid.
Metering Manager Parasram Persaud also opined that the new prepaid system notably aids in the company’s quest to reduce losses.
“The new system makes it harder and more dangerous for persons who intend to steal or detour power through a bypass since the meter is located on the pole in contrast to the traditional meter which was mounted on the building.”
At present, new account holders with the company are given prepaid meters as first preference although the option to acquire a post-paid meter remains.
After being exposed to the services of the prepaid metering system for the past two weeks, residents of the Non Pareil/ Enterprise area conclude that the system is not much different from the post-paid. Some reported that they are still observing the workings of the new instrument and will compare the money spent on the ‘power cards’ with their previous GPL bills at the month’s end to determine if their post-paid meter reading was correct.
According to the company’s Loss Reduction Divisional Director, Kumar Sharma, during a pilot project on the implementation of the prepaid metering system in Cummings Park, Sophia, as a result of the new system, there has been a drastic reduction in the incidence of power being accessed illegally. He explained that the new system has no secondary distribution system, therefore, consumers are hooked up directly from the transformers. This negates the opportunity for electricity to be extracted illegally since there are no open conductors.
Sharma added that due to the new system, there were increased numbers of applications for legal connections. He said that although there are still illegal connections in the area, the level of theft has decreased by as much as 80 per cent in the Sophia community.
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