Bangladesh Power Development Board

The conventional postpaid billing method involves a group of meter readers taking reading from the postpaid meter installed at consumers’ premises and then conveying this reading to the computer center. Electricity bill is prepared based on these readings and then the bill is distributed to the consumers’ premises. This is a very time consuming job and requires a lot of manpower. Still the accuracy of these bills cannot be guaranteed as there are several scopes of human errors. Another aspect with this system is the consumers have to pay after they use the electricity. So, they may not pay the bills in due time which creates problems for the distribution units.

To solve all these problems, prepaid metering system has been introduced in BPDB.

Advantages of prepayment meters

Prepaid energy meter comes with the advantage of managing energy consumption. When customers pay for energy that they can afford at that particular moment, they can limit their usage so that it lasts for the period they want.
The prepaid meters make it possible for customers to tell when they are misusing energy; hence they can easily come up with measures that cut on their consumption. They make it even easier for homeowners to tell how energy efficient new and existing appliances are so they can make any necessary changes.
The prepaid option saves customers from overbilling problems. This is because they only use what they have paid for and they therefore do not have to worry about the bills at the end of the month.
The prepaid meters save customers from estimate bills that can end up overcharging them. This is because the prepayment meters do not require any meter reading for customers to be billed.
Customers can still take advantage of TOU tariff rates and slab facility if they have a compatible prepayment meter.
Customers can enjoy 1% rebate on energy charge as per existing tariff order.

Third Party Vending System:

In traditional system, prepaid customers have to go to particular Utility Vending Station (UVS) physically within office hour i.e. 10am to 4pm to purchase prepaid energy Token. Customer pays cash money to vending cash counter and receives a printed copy of prepaid energy token or a smart card which is usable only for that particular prepaid meter number. Then customers come back to home and finally insert the printed token in keypad meter by pressing keys. Meter accepts only valid token and displays the recharged amount. Unified prepayment System was generating prepaid energy token only in vending Stations. This system requires huge numbers of vending stations to deal with vast number of consumers which needs large manpower for operation. The system used to operate huge amount of cash in the vending station every day. Vending was not possible without going to Vending Station and after office hours.

BPDB introduced Third Party Vending System to make the prepaid metering vending more secure, consumer friendly and cost effective. To attain this goal, BPDB appointed Grameenphone, Robi & bKash who work to provide vending service to the prepaid meter consumer of BPDB through Mobile USSD and mobile Apps.

The main objectives of 3rd Party Vending System are:

Vending at 24X7 manner from anywhere.
Reduce costing for setting uphuge number ofvending stations;
Improve customer services;
Make the system easy and transparent;
Improve and secure cash flow;
Modernize & Digitalize of Pre-paid Metering System.
Make the system sustainable.
Make the system user friendly.

Smart Metering System

Smart Metering System provides utilities with the ability to monitor and control the meters at consumer end remotely. Now BPDB is focusing on installing smart meters to ensure better quality service to consumer. Smart meters have benefits for both consumer and utility. The main advantages of smart meters are as follows:

Benefits for end consumer:

Recharge automatically.
Consumers can be informed remotely historical data or real time data.

Benefits for utility:

Reduce labot cost by remote configuration and operation on device in batch such as update tariff, holiday, friendly hour, remote firmware upgrade.
Reduce line loss by automatic & on demand meter data reading, remote load connect/disconnect, remote monitoring of device status.
Effective load management.
Critical and non-critical reporting functionality.

BPDB Pre Paid At A Glance

BPDB installed 1.5 million prepaid meters out of its 3.3 million existing customers. Currently, BPDB runs three different prepayment metering systems named Unified Prepayment Metering System, STS Prepaid System and Smart Metering System. The percentages of prepaid consumers in BPDB’s different zones are given below:

Sl No	Zone	Prepaid Coverage (%) In Ratio of Total Consumer
1	Chittagong	40.71 %
2	Comilla	25.68 %
3	Mymensingh	33.35 %
4	Sylhet	44.53 %
Total		35.89 %

Currently BPDB has 25000 online meters installed where GPRS is used as communication medium and 1,50,000 GPRS based online meters are in the installation phase. Besides that, there is an ongoing project for 60000 PLC based online meters in BPDB. Another project of installing 1,50,575 smart pre-paid meters with KFW funding is going on in Cumilla and Mymensigh zone. A plan has been undertaken to procure and install 10,00,000 single-phase and 50,000 three-phase smart meters in four zones of BPDB with ADB funding. BPDB also has plans to go for smart meters through Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) within this financial year.

On the other hand, Government approved open market policy to encourage the customers to use prepaid meters of their choice and convenience. Directorate of Prepaid Metering System, BPDB, Dhaka is responsible for implementation of AMI and provide uninterrupted customer service for the existing customers of prepaid meters.

Prepaid Meter Charges Explained

Prepaid meter charges are explained here using an example of Prepaid meter consumer of BPDB who is a LT-A Residential Consumer and uses Single Phase Connection and 2 Kwh Sanction Load .

Vending Scenario1

When this consumer does a vending of 1000 taka for the 1st time in a month , then below charges will be applied. In this case, total 861.41 BDT energy amount will be inserted in meter.

Charge Details	Calculation	Amount of Money (BDT)
Vat(5%)	1000 x (5 / 105)	47.62
Demand Charge	1 month x (2 Kwh x 30.00 BDT)	60.00
Meter Rent	1 month x 40.00 BDT	40.00
Total Charge		147.62
Rebate (1%)	1/101 x (1000 - 47.62 - 40.00)	9.03
Total Energy	1000 – 147.62 + 9.03	861.41

Vending Scenario 2

When this consumer does a vending of 1000 taka for the 2nd time in a month , then below charges will be applied. In this case, total 961.81 BDT energy amount will be inserted in meter.

Charge Details	Calculation	Amount of Money (BDT)
Vat(5%)	1000 x (5 / 105)	47.62
Demand Charge	0 month x (2 Kwh x 30.00 BDT)	0.00
Meter Rent	0 month x 40.00 BDT	0.00
Total Charge		47.62
Rebate (1%)	1/101 x (1000 - 47.62)	9.43
Total Energy	1000 – 47.62 + 9.43	961.81

Vending Scenario 3

For example, if any consumer’s last vending date was: 25th June,2020 then the consumer comes to the vending station at: 5th September, 2020 and wants to vend 1000 taka, then below charges will be applied. In this case, fixed charges of 3 months(July, August and September) will be deducted. Total 660.62 BDT energy amount will be inserted in meter.

Charge Details	Calculation	Amount of Money (BDT)
Vat(5%)	1000 x (5 / 105)	47.62
Demand Charge	3 months x (2 Kwh x 30.00 BDT)	180.00
Meter Rent	3 months x 40.00 BDT	120.00
Total Charge		347.62
Total Energy	1000 – 347.62 + 8.24	660.62

Prepaid meter consumers have to pay Meter Rent and Demand Charge as per Govt. rule only for the 1st vending of month. If consumer buys the meter by onetime payment, then consumer does not have to pay meter rent monthly.
Prepaid meter consumers have to pay 5% rule
Prepaid meter consumers enjoy 1%
Before inserting vending token into meter need to check meter balance. If meter balance is negative (due to emergency or friendly hour usage), then this negative balance will be deducted from recharged amount.
Consumers have to pay fixed charges (demand charge and meter rent) once per month. If any consumer does not vending for more than one months, then the due charges of previous months will be deducted during next vending.

Meter Short Code

SL	Information	Hexing	Inhe		Linyang	Eastern
SL	Information	Hexing	1P	3P	Linyang	Eastern
1	Meter Activation	865	37120	37120	865	Auto
2	Logoff Return Token	818	54	C6015	-	051
3	Relay Triping Cause	806			008	041
4	Emergency Balance Start	811/810	89898686	89898686	809
5	Meter Number	804	30	C10	100	011
6	Sanction Load	869	19	21350	007	004
7	Remaining Balance	801	00	C501	019	010
8	Remaining Emergency Balance	981/810	38/59		106
9	Last Recharge Amount	817	31	CL401	200	050
10	Last Recharge Token	830	53	C6014	201
11	Token Sequence Number	889	52	C6013	011	090
12	Current Month Uses	814	01		803	047
13	Last Month Uses	820			820	053
14	Status of Friendly Mode	900	51/51/56	C6011, C6012	785	100
15	Voltage	877	07	L1-3270, L2-5270, L3-7270	760	070
16	Current	874	08	L1-3170, L2-5170, L3-7170	763	071
17	Overdraw Threshold		38	C505	106	044/045
18	Tariff Solution	809/886	03	C701	005	008