The Dhaka Electric Supply Company Ltd (Desco) will provide smart pre-payment meters to all its customers by 2023.

Kawsar Amir Ali, managing director of Desco, said this while speaking at a webinar titled "Challenges After Achieving 100% Electricity Coverage" last evening.

The virtual seminar was also addressed by Bikash Dewan, managing director of Dhaka Power Distribution Company Ltd (DPDC), Helal Uddin, Vice President of Bangladesh Shop Owners Association, Shahedul Islam Helal, former president of Bangladesh Chamber of Industries (BCI) and Ariful Haque Suhan, vice chairman of Reverie Power & Automation Engineering.

Desco is responsible for electricity distribution in the city's west and north-eastern areas amounting to 225 sq km including Mirpur, Pallabi, Kafrul, Kalyanpur, Cantonment, Gulshan, Banani, Baridhara, Mohakhali, Uttara, Uttarkhan, Dakkhinkhan, Badda and Purbachal.

It has about 1 million consumers, some of whom were previously provided pre-payment meters for billing purposes, living mainly in Mirpur and Uttara.

To get continued electricity supply, consumers of these areas have to re-charge their pre-payment card cards from vending stations.

"Once the smart pre-payment meters are installed, consumers will not need to go to vending stations. Rather, they can recharge their cards using their own means from home or abroad to continue to get electricity service," Kausar Amber Ali told the webinar.

He also informed that the company has taken a move to take its 133 kV overhead electricity lines to underground by 2023.

Initially, installation work of such underground cable will start in Gulshan area under a pilot project and then gradually it will be implemented in others areas.

In this regard, Mohakhali to Airport road will get priority, he added.

Bikash Dewan said DPDC has also taken up projects to take its overhead electricity lines to underground and the first project will be implemented in Dhanmondi area.

"This job has been a great challenge for DPDC as a big area of its power distribution is in the old part of the city where power networks go through very narrow areas," he said, adding that the distribution company has to think about alternative arrangements and technologies considering the characteristics of those areas.

Shahedul Islam said, although power supply improved with increased generation, uninterrupted and quality power supply has not been ensured. "As industry operators, we have to bear a huge cost for interruption in electricity supply as it creates problems in production," he said.

Helal Uddin said both the distribution companies are providing single meters for each customer in big shopping malls. As a result, shop owners have to pay a higher rate of electricity.

"Once an individual meter is installed, it'll reduce the electricity cost," he said.