Titas Gas moves to instal pre-paid meters
Friday, 20 November 2009
FHM Humayan Kabir
Bangladesh's largest gas distributor Titas has taken an ambitious move to check gas wastages and pilferages installing pre-paid meters as it loses several hundred million cubic metres of gas every month from its systems, officials said Wednesday.
Titas Gas officials said the company would install 8600 "pre-paid" domestic meters and 680 "remote metering systems" for load intensive industrial consumers and power generators by 2012 investing Tk555.2 million.
"We'll install pre-paid meters in the households and for industrial customers to check misuse and pilferages. The household customers usually waste gas and some industrial customers pilfer gas bypassing the meters," a director of the Titas Gas told the FE.
Titas Gas statistics showed that it lost 109mmcm of gas worth Tk420.3 million from its systems in the last financial year (2008-09) due to pilferage and theft by customers.
The industrial units and power generators are the largest gas users of state-owned Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd (TGTDCL) out of its total 1200mmcm monthly gas sales worth Tk 4.68 billion.
The state-owned gas distribution company supplied nearly 2250 mmcm of gas to the industrial customers and 125 mmcm to the household customers in the last financial year (2008-09) out of its total 13449.71 mmcm gas sales at Tk 51.74 billion.
"Our systems loss has declined significantly in the last financial year compared to the previous years. But the loss in the industrial sector and wastage in households uses are still high," said the director the gas company.
"We hope that installation of the prepaid meters will reduce the wastage and pilferage significantly," he told the FE requesting anonymity as he was not officially authorised to talk to media.
The systems loss of Titas Gas was 5.34 per cent in FY2007, which declined to only 0.81 per cent in the last FY2009, company statistics showed.
Titas Gas, gas distributor in greater Dhaka and its adjacent areas, will install the meters under a scheme "Supply efficiency improvement of TGTDCL" at a cost of Tk555.2 million, of which Tk 347.02 million will come from the Asian Development Bank.
The Titas Gas director said: "Many housewives waste gas keeping their burners activated even after completion of cooking because of unlimited supply of gas at lower price. If we can install prepaid meters, the wastage and misuse will come down significantly."
"Some captive power producers and industrial customers pilfer gas bypassing the meters or pay less revenue by tampering with those. When we will install the remote metering system, the pilferages will decline," he added.
The Titas Gas director said they would complete the first phase of the project by December 2012.
TGTDCL is the largest gas distribution company in the country with nearly 1200mmcm daily sale out of the total 1950 million cubic feet of gas production in the country.
Bangladesh's largest gas distributor Titas has taken an ambitious move to check gas wastages and pilferages installing pre-paid meters as it loses several hundred million cubic metres of gas every month from its systems, officials said Wednesday.
Titas Gas officials said the company would install 8600 "pre-paid" domestic meters and 680 "remote metering systems" for load intensive industrial consumers and power generators by 2012 investing Tk555.2 million.
"We'll install pre-paid meters in the households and for industrial customers to check misuse and pilferages. The household customers usually waste gas and some industrial customers pilfer gas bypassing the meters," a director of the Titas Gas told the FE.
Titas Gas statistics showed that it lost 109mmcm of gas worth Tk420.3 million from its systems in the last financial year (2008-09) due to pilferage and theft by customers.
The industrial units and power generators are the largest gas users of state-owned Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd (TGTDCL) out of its total 1200mmcm monthly gas sales worth Tk 4.68 billion.
The state-owned gas distribution company supplied nearly 2250 mmcm of gas to the industrial customers and 125 mmcm to the household customers in the last financial year (2008-09) out of its total 13449.71 mmcm gas sales at Tk 51.74 billion.
"Our systems loss has declined significantly in the last financial year compared to the previous years. But the loss in the industrial sector and wastage in households uses are still high," said the director the gas company.
"We hope that installation of the prepaid meters will reduce the wastage and pilferage significantly," he told the FE requesting anonymity as he was not officially authorised to talk to media.
The systems loss of Titas Gas was 5.34 per cent in FY2007, which declined to only 0.81 per cent in the last FY2009, company statistics showed.
Titas Gas, gas distributor in greater Dhaka and its adjacent areas, will install the meters under a scheme "Supply efficiency improvement of TGTDCL" at a cost of Tk555.2 million, of which Tk 347.02 million will come from the Asian Development Bank.
The Titas Gas director said: "Many housewives waste gas keeping their burners activated even after completion of cooking because of unlimited supply of gas at lower price. If we can install prepaid meters, the wastage and misuse will come down significantly."
"Some captive power producers and industrial customers pilfer gas bypassing the meters or pay less revenue by tampering with those. When we will install the remote metering system, the pilferages will decline," he added.
The Titas Gas director said they would complete the first phase of the project by December 2012.
TGTDCL is the largest gas distribution company in the country with nearly 1200mmcm daily sale out of the total 1950 million cubic feet of gas production in the country.