Background
Lodha Group envisioned its Palava City, near Mumbai, to be the largest ever private green field smart city in urban India, and one of the top 50 places to live in the world by 2020. The 18 Sq. Km. mixed use integrated city project, when completed, is expected to house about 125,000 residences apart from office and commercial space.
Business Issues
Palava City has entered into a distribution franchisee agreement with the local utility MSEDCL to secure near uninterrupted and stable power supply in the long term. The franchisee will manage collection of electricity charges and maintenance of electrical infrastructure in Palava. In this regard, Palava City intends to:
- Reduce the operational hassles of meter reading and posting to MSEDCL
- Eliminate the risk of energy bill collection on behalf of local utility MSEDCL
- Maximize convenience to Palava City residents
- Help residents in efficient energy usage
Solution Delivered
A new concept in prepaid metering system termed as “Smart Prepaid Metering” was developed and provided to fulfill the business requirements of Lodha’s Palava City. Smart Prepaid system allows its consumers to opt-in/out for prepaid billing as and when required without changing the metering infrastructure. Our solution offering includes smart grid elements such as smart meters, head-end system, central data server with MDMS and UHES, consumer portal and integration with other applications at Palava City including command centre, resident portal and the back office system.
Benefits
- Unique solution in the industry enabling consumer to switch between prepaid and post-paid billing without changing metering infrastructure
- Ensure accurate meter readings scheduled and on-demand
- Better cash flow to utilities with payments collected in advance
- Help consumers avoid wastage and reduce energy usage
- Availability of smart meter data for Lodha /MSEDCL to monitor consumption patterns and respond to outages far more quickly