Four hundred and five meters, 40 MRI, and three DOS-based computers was the largest meter order we had in 1991. In the whole year, we produced approximately 700 meters. The customer was a utility in Central India, and the order was for their energy audit project.
In 1991, the word meter ubiquitously meant a gadget with a glass window within which a red and white coloured aluminium disk and an energy counter were visible. People in their childhood were taught to stay away from such beasts owing to the threat of electric (and financial) shock. Those with a better understanding of meters could spot the coil and brake magnet through the glass window.
The meters arrived in the utility stores, which led to the release of a Material Receipt Certificate (MRC), which is one of the documents, besides three others, that we need before our payments can be released. As one might expect, the store’s staff were not equipped to certify that the black boxes were indeed meters, and they had their reasons: these boxes didn’t have a disk or a register, which was surely essential for a meter back then. The Meter Relay Testing department, which dealt with this area, was asked to certify that the black boxes were indeed energy meters.
The Meter and Relay department is headed by a Superintendent Engineer who is supported by a Divisional, Assistant and Junior Engineer, besides the crew, each having a precise job description like seal cutter, meter tester, relay tester, supervisor, driver and the list used to be long (and confusing). For the first ten days of the month, the entire department would travel around to read the meters of high-value industrial customers, so that they could prepare their invoices; hence, there were only a few days left for their responsibilities back at headquarters, like testing our meter.
Frequent calls from Udaipur asking for the status of the payment over STD, for which charges were Rs32/minute, were enough to put an engineer, fresh out of college like me, in a high-pressure situation.
Certifying meters for an energy audit was not a priority for anyone. After several days of waiting, it was my lucky day, and I met the Superintending Engineer and requested him to provide the certificate. He asked me to meet his Divisional Engineer, and very soon, descending through the hierarchy, I was standing in front of the Junior Engineer who claimed that until they had tested and accepted the meters, they would not be in a position to provide the acceptance certificate.
A box of meters was opened, and the demo started – one demo for each person in that building. There were no symptoms that anyone was interested in testing the meter. Analysing my day, I quickly realised that my audience had turned nervous when my fingers worked the MRI and PC while demonstrating the meter functionality. It could have been something to do with the new gadgets.
I wired a meter in series with a reference meter to prove that it worked and was accurate. The meters of that era did not have a calibration LED, nor did the utility have a test bench with optical scanners. Error testing was performed using manual calculation of the increment recorded by the standard meter and our meter. In order to create significant increments to have the errors within a decimal place, the test period used to be pretty long, say 30-40 minutes, and that too with the MRI connected with the meter, which in turn displayed higher resolution energy.
I was delighted when the meter passed on all the load points the customer had set. I thought that my MRC was about to be handed over to me.
To my dismay, the SE announced that each meter, yes, each meter, had to be tested, and only then, if found satisfactory, the MRC could be released. He had his reasons, chiefly because it was the first time they were buying electronic meters and hence testing them before use (and procurement) was equally important for their business. Late at night, when the STD charges were one-fourth, I informed at Udaipur about the change to the rules of the game.
The acceptance testing was to be performed by the Junior Engineer and his crew, and I was warned not to help (read influence) until asked for. Testing a single meter at the given test points, within limited working hours, took two days if I managed the time well. An error when noting the initial or final values, or computing the percentage error, could cost the team another day. The main time eaters were errors due to the operation of the MRI with its QWERTY keyboard, a multi-level menu. This was compounded by the fact that the MRI, being a computer, was perceived as a delicate piece of equipment that, if spoiled, would result in someone being held responsible and punished. I found the technicians avoiding any interaction with such risky, unrewarding equipment. For me, time was running out and I had to get the payment.
All told, I had three big problems to solve. I needed to increase the testing speed, train the technicians on how to use the MRI / DOS computer, and make the crew believe that electronic equipment is robust and reliable.
By now, I had realised that my success (getting the meters accepted) was based on the performance of the meter testing staff. I started befriending them, spending the entire day with them, pretending I was enjoying working with the MRI, and occasionally, I would cautiously drop it and demonstrate its robustness. It took a while for them to believe that the computer and MRI were robust and would not go kaput with use. The staff was now proficient in switching the MRI ON / OFF and connecting its optical port to the meter. Still, the test speed did not increase much.
My parents’ house was being constructed and was at the woodwork stage. Looking at the inventory of raw material, I realised that I could carry a big sheet of plywood to the meter test lab and hang meters on it, to multiply the test speed. I started working like a robot, drilling holes to fix meter hanging hooks; I do not remember how I got the inspiration to make an arrangement to hang 40 meters in one go. A rickshaw was called and the board was taken to the meter test lab. Critics, those not yet befriended, were laughing at my idea. I purchased the cable and tools, and after days of hard work, I was able to connect 40 meters in series with the reference meter. The phantom load supported the burden of 40 electronic meters. Oh! What a sight to see forty meters with LED displays glowing after sunset. My next challenge was to arrange 40 MRIs, one for each meter, so that these meters could be tested in a gang. That was an easy job.
The testing speed increased, but not exactly 40 times, as I was operating the MRIs and needed help in this area. I tried to train a few technicians regarded as “sharp” but soon realised that the scale of sharpness deceived me. I also learned that the sharper fellows in this closed environment did not want to be trained, as this would bring them under scrutiny, where they may lose their crown. It was safer to keep a distance from such learning.
I choose the mediocre to train. The hands-on training was provided, and now a bunch of technicians were trained to support me in reading the initial / final values. To celebrate their success, I would offer them a working tea party announcing the mediocre as the champions. Sharp guys felt threatened; they felt their boat getting rocked. Secretly, I knew they had started taking lessons without admitting they did not know the concepts in the first place.
While the team was ready to read energy values by pressing the “kWh” option, they went blank if the MRI booted and displayed b: (read b-prompt or B-drive). It was time for their next lesson, which was growing more complex, but this fact was not to be shared, lest they decide that electronic meters are not good. That would jeopardise my testing.
Training technicians with 15-20 years of experience is a challenge; they believe they know everything, and anything they do not know is not worth knowing. The training was imparted subtly; no one ever knew they were being trained, yet somehow, now they started to enjoy it.
I needed to train the group to load the data on the PC. The meter reading tool was then called a “SEMS-PACK”. Computer training at the time was an expensive affair. I used that pitch and started training them on the top-end PCs we had supplied. They had 20MB of hard disk! The SEMS-PACK and MRI manuals were now more frequently referred to.
The testing crew was able to turn around 40 meters in three days – two days of testing and one day of swapping meters. I could see the meter boxes moving from left to right, passing through the plyboard test bench.
I did not find the same level of acceptance on the functionality of the software package as for accepting the meters. People would work if I guided them step by step on the PC, but if I left the scene, the testing would come to a halt. I realised that the operators were not able to understand the manual, chiefly because it was in English and to a certain extent, it did not explain how to solve a problem. With a genuine desire to help my customer (and thereby helping my goal), I tried translating the manuals into Hindi. The first night, I completed a chapter and left it in the test area. This was about running the MRI program “Calib”, reading a meter and dumping the values in SEMS-PACK. To my surprise, things moved as if running on autopilot. The operators no longer needed me. Encouraged by the response, I translated the entire manual into Hindi. The operators got the manuscript photocopied and preserved it for their reference. It was a remarkable experience to bring 20 odd people, from a point where they had no inclination towards my products and services, to one where they had become beyond conversant. Our friendship grew stronger, and we surpassed the trust phase.
Junior Engineers who in these two months had developed confidence in the capability of our meter started carrying a meter and an MRI on their routine HT customer visits. Along with comparing the error of electro-mech meters with their reference, they would check it against our meter. Working without my support, their confidence increased. They did not say this directly to me, but somehow, the information reached their head office that our meters were as good as a reference meter.
After kWh, the tamper detection feature, three-phase voltage / current, a breakthrough in meter connection diagnosis, were the next areas the team was trained in. The lab where the testing took place was visited by metering engineers from all over the state. Staying in the lab for a day to sort out their businesses, they gained some insight into our meter and complained to the boss that they and their team should also be given exposure to new meters, which was now seen as fun.
The friendship with the utility engineers deepened. A few meters were installed at an HT customer’s premises, and I was expected to accompany them on their 200 km venture, the monthly meter reading. I thoroughly enjoyed it. During the course, I found out that as a ritual, they would record the voltage and current during meter reading, which required connecting an ammeter / voltmeter, and they spent approximately 45 minutes doing this. In my weekly report to Sunil Khandelwal, my branch coordinator, I requested that the addition of an instant parameter display be included in the SEMS-PACK. Development speeds were great then. I was swiftly sent a copy of the new SEMS-PACK with instant parameters read automatically during the meter read. This warranted erasing the old program on the MRI using UV light and reprogramming it, which I did in my DIY lab. I am proud to share that the display of the instant parameters is now an industry practice.
A couple of our meters failed owing to EMI – the knowledge of Indian field conditions and our own experience in EMI / EMC was in the early phase of the learning curve. Mr Babel visited the utility to assure them that we were on top of the issue and had an appointment with the Executive Director, the boss of the Superintendent Engineer. There was a 27-point agenda which Mr Babel handled in an inspiring way. I thanked my stars for the opportunity to see him and his innovative style in action. During the meeting, the Executive Director would call me my nickname “Raju,” talk to me as if I worked for them as a GET, and wonder why I was running in sync with Babel Sb. He was surprised to learn that I worked for Secure. We were offered special Jalebi’s. Inspired by the values, I did everything which helped the customers to serve their business and, in turn, helped their customers. For a decade, we were the preferred vendor in that utility. They still trust us for meters for high-value metering points.
Oh yes, the meters were tested within 2.5 months. We received our money in 5 months, as it was routed through PFC, Delhi. I worked continuously for the money and made electronic meters, aka Secure, popular with the operators who work for the engineers. At half price STD tariff, I called Babel Sb to inform him that our money (a draft) was on its way to Udaipur. There was a silence which I broke, “Are you happy?” He replied, “I would have expected this earlier”. This incident still inspires me when setting goals. Stretched targets are what I have learned to set and meet, and I do not want anything less than that. I still thank the customer who threw stiff challenges at me, and the strong foundation built in my formative days.
-Rajesh Nimare