To tackle the shortage of meter assessors
They enter the reading manually, but consumers should take a photo and upload it to eliminate the possibility of wrong assessment,” said a TNPDCL official. TNPDCL is set to launch a new feature on its official mobile phone application through which consumers can capture the exact meter reading, after which the billing software will automatically calculate the power consumption for two months and generate an invoice. The invoice will be sent via WhatsApp and SMS to the mobile number linked to the particular service. “TNPDCL has developed a new feature through which a consumer can open the smartphone camera and capture the exact meter reading. A consumer should enter the service number in the app and capture the reading for the system to generate the invoice. It is pretty much what the assessors do. Testing of the feature is currently underway, and it will be rolled out in a few areas in the next two weeks before being extended across the state before December, added the official. Consumers can upload the reading up to two days at the end of the bi-monthly cycle to ensure that the consumption does not jump to the next tariff slab. One consumer can also take readings of multiple meters by entering the correct service number, and invoices will be sent to the concerned consumers. It may be noted that Torrent Gas, which supplies piped LPG to a few neighbourhoods in the city, resorts to similar meter readings to bill consumers. “Once a consumer completes reading a meter, it will be taken off the list of meters to be assessed by the assessors. It will ease the burden on assessors too,” added an official. TNPDCL will issue detailed instructions on how to generate electricity bills and plans to display the step-by-step process at all billing counters While launching the facility.