Adani row: UP discom scraps Adani Group’s smart meters bid worth Rs 5,400 cr

Madhyanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam (MVVNL), Uttar Pradesh's power utility, has cancelled its order to Adani Group to supply smart meters to the electricity distribution company (DISCOM). Under the bid, worth Rs 5,400 crore, the Adani Group was supposed to supply around 7.5 million smart meters to the power distribution company.     

In a notification dated February 4, the state discom said: “The tender has been cancelled due to unavoidable reasons.” The notification added that UP discoms, such as Madhyanchal, Dakshinanchal, Purvanchal, and Paschimanchal, had floated tenders for the supply of more than 25 million smart meters. The combined value of the whole project was Rs 25,000 crore. 

MVVNL had invited the e-tender for the appointment of an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) service provider for smart prepaid metering in MVVNL.  

The Adani Group had submitted the lowest bid of Rs 10,000 per smart meter. But MVVNL officials termed it as very high, following which the discom cancelled the tender citing “unavoidable reasons”, the discom notification said. The MVVNL has now allowed all the companies to re-bid into the process. 

 Besides Adani Group, GMR, L&T, and Intellismart Infra had submitted their tenders for the project. It is interesting to note that none of these companies are manufacturers of smart meters. After winning the bid, the companies would probably engage smaller manufacturers to produce the smart meters.  

Now, the discom is likely to opt for a fresh tendering process. There is a possibility that other UP discoms involved could tread a similar line after MVVNL’s step. 

Meanwhile, the UP power consumers’ forum had already challenged the bids before the UP Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC).  

Under the standing billing guideline of the Rural Electrification Corporation, the price of the meters had been fixed at Rs 6,000 per unit.