1001 Smart Cities

Permanent project revision

Prepaid Electricity Metering by DPDC and DESCO

Revision 2026-08-26-dhaka-baseline · effective 2026-08-26

Current revision. This is the snapshot used by the live entity page.

unreviewed

Created the first structured Evidence Passport with 12 claims and 8 source dossiers.

sha256:810f4b55f3923222f75b166558d3426d0219d6a5c9b02a63f1e5b004b1f4776d
All revisions → Current entity page →

Change set

  • add /evidencePassport — Added claim-level evidence mapping and source dossiers.
  • add /revisionHistory — Established a permanent, hash-addressed baseline revision.
12
of 12 claims mapped
8
source dossiers
6
publication dates recorded
0
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Claims, one by one

The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.

Claim 1 clm-9f8fd99e42181f10 descriptive
Dhaka's electricity is sold by two state-owned distributors, DPDC across the south and parts of the north and DESCO across northern Dhaka, Tongi and Purbachal
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
BSS (July 2026) states DESCO's area verbatim: 'Its distribution network primarily covers the northern parts of Dhaka City, Tongi Town in Gazipur district, and the Purbachal Model Town', and DPDC's as 'around 19.9 lakh consumers under Dhaka City Corporation and surrounding areas'. BSS (October 2025) states DPDC's side verbatim: 'DPDC supplies electricity to the southern part of Dhaka along with some areas in the northern part of the capital.' Both are described as state-owned in the same reports.
Caveat
DESCO's area reaches beyond the city into Tongi in Gazipur district, and DPDC's is given as the Dhaka City Corporation areas 'and surrounding areas'. The programme is therefore slightly wider than the city boundary.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. BSS, 87.50 lakh prepaid electricity metres installed till June (state news agency, BPDB/utility figures)
  2. BSS, DPDC installs 10.66 lakh smart prepaid meters to boost revenue collection (state news agency, DPDC figures)
Claim 2 clm-2e9bdebf2adbd1c0 quantitative
DESCO installed the first prepaid meters at Uttara in August 2005
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Verbatim in the 2008 Daily Star report: 'In August 2005, this government-owned electricity distributing company, which was established in1994, installed the pre-paid meter system at Uttara in Dhaka to ensure better customer services.'
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. The Daily Star, Desco to expand prepaid meter system to new areas (media)
Claim 3 clm-827b446e909c18b5 descriptive
on a design by BUET students rather than a foreign vendor
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Daily Star, quoting DESCO's managing director: 'a group of students of Bangladesh University of Engineering Technology (Buet) designed the pre-paid meter system'. BSS repeats the attribution in 2025: 'Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) designed and developed the prepaid meter for electricity use.'
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. The Daily Star, Desco to expand prepaid meter system to new areas (media)
  2. BSS, DPDC installs 10.66 lakh smart prepaid meters to boost revenue collection (state news agency, DPDC figures)
Claim 4 clm-914e1ec05e560ab2 quantitative
had 7,500 customers on the system there three years later
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Verbatim: 'So far, Desco brought 7500 customers under the pre-paid metre system in Uttara.' The article is dated 23 August 2008, three years after the August 2005 start it reports in the same piece.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. The Daily Star, Desco to expand prepaid meter system to new areas (media)
Claim 5 clm-bc39b800bc4361c9 quantitative
By June 2026 DPDC reported 10,79,184 meters against around 19.9 lakh consumers, and DESCO 9,16,910 against around 10.2 lakh
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Verbatim: 'Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited (DPDC) 10,79,184, Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited (DESCO) 9,16,910 ... across the country till June 2026'; and, in the same report, 'The DPDC has been serving around 19.9 lakh consumers under Dhaka City Corporation and surrounding areas' and 'The DESCO has been serving around 10.2 lakh.'
Caveat
These are utility and BPDB figures relayed by the state news agency, not audited counts, and the two service areas are slightly wider than the city.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. BSS, 87.50 lakh prepaid electricity metres installed till June (state news agency, BPDB/utility figures)
Claim 6 clm-9a18be8c32db5887 quantitative
A study of Dhaka customers presented at the IEEE Region 10 Symposium in 2020 found that at least 32 per cent of households had skipped one or more bills in a year under postpaid billing
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The paper's abstract, verbatim: 'Analysis of postpaid bill indicate that at least 32% households skipped paying one or more bills over a period of one year.' Title and venue confirmed through Crossref: '... in Dhaka, Bangladesh', 2020 IEEE Region 10 Symposium (TENSYMP), pages 1636-1639.
Caveat
IEEE Xplore answers automated readers with HTTP 202 and no body, so only the paper's abstract was read, through the Semantic Scholar API. The paper does not name the distributor whose data it used.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Rabbani, Ali & Zaber, IEEE Region 10 Symposium (TENSYMP) 2020 (peer-reviewed)
Claim 7 clm-80e5c77f90fe82bc quantitative
after the switch approximately 46 per cent of all households were recharging every month, including 52 per cent of those who had skipped a bill and 45 per cent of those who had paid late
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Abstract, verbatim: 'After prepaid switch, approximately 46% of all households are making prepayments every month. 52% of households who skip paying bill and 45% of households who pay bill after due date, at least once, are now recharging every month.'
Caveat
Read from the abstract only; see the previous claim.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Rabbani, Ali & Zaber, IEEE Region 10 Symposium (TENSYMP) 2020 (peer-reviewed)
Claim 8 clm-d29860ec6f9bfeff quantitative
A 2019 working paper comparing Khilgaon, where prepaid metering arrived in January 2018, with Ramna, where it had not, put the fall in monthly consumption at 47 kWh, or 24 per cent
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The working paper's abstract, verbatim: 'we find that customers reduce their monthly electricity consumption by 47 kWh or 24 percent when they switched from post-paid electricity metering system to pre-paid metering'; and in its introduction: 'In Ramna region DESCO have not implemented pre-paid metering yet, whereas in Khilgaon DESCO implemented pre-paid metering from January, 2018 ... a sample of Ramna areas customers are considered as a control group and Khilgaon as treatment group.'
Caveat
A working paper, not a refereed journal article, and the entry says so. Its PDF text layer inserts spaces inside numbers, so the locator may need to be matched loosely. The paper attributes the billing data to DESCO, whose published service area does not include Ramna or Khilgaon.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Das, Does prepaid metering make a difference in electricity consumption? Evidence from Bangladesh (ANU working paper)
Claim 9 clm-7a7b188f689e7558 quantitative
The rollout itself trebled in Dhaka over that period: DPDC held 4,35,552 meters and DESCO 2,93,838 in October 2019
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The 2019 figures are stated verbatim and attributed in the article to the Director General of Power Cell: 'distribution companies installed 28,86,548 smart pre-payment meters across the country in October 2019, of which ... DPDC 4,35,552, DESCO 2,93,838'. The June 2026 counterparts (10,79,184 and 9,16,910) are in the BSS report and in this entry's snippet, so the trebling is visible from the two pairs rather than asserted from a computed total.
Caveat
'Trebled' is a characterisation of the two sourced pairs, not a figure any source states.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. The Business Standard / BSS, Installation of more 88 lakh prepayment meters on the card (media, Power Cell figures)
  2. BSS, 87.50 lakh prepaid electricity metres installed till June (state news agency, BPDB/utility figures)
Claim 10 clm-2c500c725d00da39 quantitative
Tk 1,244 crore was outstanding in October 2025, and Tk 822 crore of it was owed by government agencies
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Verbatim: 'According to DPDC sources, Tk 1,244 crore remains due from different customers, including both government and private sectors. Of the amount, DPDC will get Tk 822 crore from government agencies and Tk 422 crore from private sector consumers.' Dated 30 October 2025.
Caveat
The figure is DPDC's own account of arrears. No source states that government connections are exempt from prepayment; the entry states the arrears and does not claim an exemption.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. BSS, DPDC installs 10.66 lakh smart prepaid meters to boost revenue collection (state news agency, DPDC figures)
Claim 11 clm-24cb9a0bb9b2f6a8 descriptive
A DPDC customer in Kalabagan was told his automatic meter was not transmitting daily consumption readings, which instead arrived sometimes daily, sometimes after ten days, sometimes a fortnight at once
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Verbatim: 'There he discovered that while the meter was automatic, it was not transmitting daily consumption readings. Instead, the readings piled up - sometimes daily, sometimes after ten days, sometimes a fortnight's worth of data arriving at once.' The customer is named in the report as Mansur Alam, a residential prepaid meter user in Kalabagan.
Caveat
One reported customer case, not a measurement of how the fleet behaves. No published figure for how many Dhaka meters report remotely was found.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Bonik Barta, Higher electricity bills deepen customer frustration, prompting complaints (media)
Claim 12 clm-ba37dfe432195531 descriptive
a DESCO customer in Mirpur could not check his remaining balance because his meter does not connect to DESCO's app
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Verbatim: 'The meter does not connect to DESCO's app, so he cannot check his remaining balance.' The customer is named as Tapan Kumar, in Mirpur's Khejurtola. The locator is trimmed before the apostrophe because the page uses a typographic apostrophe (DESCO’s); the trimmed string is still unique on the page.
Caveat
One reported customer case. DESCO does publish a prepaid customer portal, but desco.org.bd was unreachable from this environment, so its behaviour could not be checked directly.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Bonik Barta, Higher electricity bills deepen customer frustration, prompting complaints (media)

Source dossiers and revision state

This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.

unreviewed Revision 2026-08-26-dhaka-baseline effective 2026-08-26 · created 2026-08-26

Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.

sha256:810f4b55f3923222f75b166558d3426d0219d6a5c9b02a63f1e5b004b1f4776d
Revision history → Permanent version link → Machine-readable record → Evidence Constitution →
12
of 12 claims mapped
8
source dossiers
6
publication dates recorded
0
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Governance facts carried by the record

Operator
Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited (DPDC) and Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited (DESCO), the two state-owned distributors for Dhaka, under the Power Division
Actor types
utility, national-government
Funding model
mixed
Funding description
DPDC says its network offices installed the meters 'with their own, government, and lending agency financing'; the Power Division runs the national programme above the two Dhaka utilities
Cost
Not recorded
Ownership
Not recorded
Decision rights
Not recorded
Exit conditions
Not recorded

8 source dossiers

BSS, 87.50 lakh prepaid electricity metres installed till June (state news agency, BPDB/utility figures) bssnews.net · 3 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-87a86fdd5d47118f
Publisher
Name not classified · bssnews.net
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2026-07-14
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

State news agency report on the national prepaid metering programme, quoting BPDB. Carries the per-utility installation counts to June 2026 ('Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited (DPDC) 10,79,184, Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited (DESCO) 9,16,910'), the consumer bases ('The DPDC has been serving around 19.9 lakh consumers under Dhaka City Corporation and surrounding areas', 'The DESCO has been serving around 10.2 lakh'), DESCO's service area (northern Dhaka, Tongi in Gazipur, Purbachal Model Town), the 2 per cent prepaid discount, emergency credit, and the statement that 5-7 per cent of loss is non-technical at customer level. The counts are utility/BPDB figures relayed by the state agency, so they are operator reporting, not an audit.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
BSS, DPDC installs 10.66 lakh smart prepaid meters to boost revenue collection (state news agency, DPDC figures) bssnews.net · 3 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-32f2ca5f54e93c97
Publisher
Name not classified · bssnews.net
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2025-10-30
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

State news agency report quoting DPDC's Deputy General Manager (HR). Carries DPDC's October 2025 count of 10,66,005 meters against 19,09,004 consumers, the arrears ('Tk 1,244 crore remains due from different customers' of which 'DPDC will get Tk 822 crore from government agencies and Tk 422 crore from private sector consumers'), the 2018 introduction of smart metering and vending machines, the 2022 project for 8.5 lakh meters, the fact that prepaid installation runs under 28 of DPDC's 36 network offices, and BUET's authorship of the meter design.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Rabbani, Ali & Zaber, IEEE Region 10 Symposium (TENSYMP) 2020 (peer-reviewed) doi.org · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-3cc142221e63d51a
Publisher
Name not classified · doi.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Peer-reviewed conference paper, 'Does Electric Prepaid Meters Decrease Payment Delinquency? Evidence from Data Centric Analysis of Electricity Consumption in Dhaka, Bangladesh', 2020 IEEE Region 10 Symposium (TENSYMP), pages 1636-1639; the symposium itself was held in Dhaka from 5 June 2020. Record and pagination resolved through Crossref against the DOI. IEEE Xplore answers automated readers with HTTP 202 and no body, so the abstract was read through the Semantic Scholar API; the four percentages used here are all stated in the paper's own abstract. The paper does not name the distributor whose data it used.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Das, Does prepaid metering make a difference in electricity consumption? Evidence from Bangladesh (ANU working paper) ergonline.org · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-01126f593350ff10
Publisher
Name not classified · ergonline.org
Type / language
pdf · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Working paper by Debasish Kumar Das, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University; not a refereed journal article, and labelled as a working paper in the entry for that reason. Difference-in-differences on a 12-month panel of customer-level billing data supplied under a non-disclosure agreement, with Ramna as control and Khilgaon as treatment after prepaid metering arrived there in January 2018; 5,310 control and 2,644 treatment customers. Finding quoted verbatim: 'customers reduce their monthly electricity consumption by 47 kWh or 24 percent when they switched from post-paid electricity metering system to pre-paid metering'. The paper attributes the data to DESCO; see the trap note, because DESCO's published service area is northern Dhaka. The document itself states no publication date - the November 2019 signal is a PDF production timestamp and a CMS upload path, neither of which counts.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Bonik Barta, Higher electricity bills deepen customer frustration, prompting complaints (media) en.bonikbarta.com · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-900171c67ef0a2d7
Publisher
Name not classified · en.bonikbarta.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2026-07-07
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Business daily report on the June 2026 billing complaints, carrying the two named Dhaka cases used in the lesson: a DPDC prepaid customer in Kalabagan who found that 'while the meter was automatic, it was not transmitting daily consumption readings' and that they 'piled up - sometimes daily, sometimes after ten days, sometimes a fortnight's worth of data arriving at once'; and a DESCO customer in Mirpur's Khejurtola for whom 'The meter does not connect to DESCO's app, so he cannot check his remaining balance'. Also carries the hundred-digit recharge tokens and the Power Division's position that most complaints were misunderstandings.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
The Business Standard, Shocking bills, strained budgets: Consumers battle unexpected power charges (media) tbsnews.net · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-a88198ddb1bfb963
Publisher
Name not classified · tbsnews.net
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2024-06-29
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Context source, not cited for any figure in the entry. Records that on 11 June 2024 the High Court issued a rule asking why there should not be an independent investigation into complaints about prepaid meters, and that on 12 June 2024 a bench ordered an independent committee to investigate and report within a month. That proceeding covers the country's distribution utilities generally, not Dhaka alone, and is described here as national for that reason. Also carries two named Dhaka consumer complaints about prepaid deductions.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
The Daily Star, Desco to expand prepaid meter system to new areas (media) thedailystar.net · 3 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-99d899d0e55d03b3
Publisher
Name not classified · thedailystar.net
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2008-08-23
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The origin source. Verbatim: 'In August 2005, this government-owned electricity distributing company, which was established in1994, installed the pre-paid meter system at Uttara in Dhaka'; 'So far, Desco brought 7500 customers under the pre-paid metre system in Uttara'; 'a group of students of Bangladesh University of Engineering Technology (Buet) designed the pre-paid meter system'. Also records that DPDC at that date only had plans to introduce prepaid metering, and quotes an Uttara resident saying the bill 'seems larger under the new payment system as we are paying before consumption' even with the 2 per cent rebate.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
The Business Standard / BSS, Installation of more 88 lakh prepayment meters on the card (media, Power Cell figures) tbsnews.net · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-bd68b1fad8dec707
Publisher
Name not classified · tbsnews.net
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2020-03-12
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The October 2019 baseline, attributed in the article to the Director General of Power Cell: 'distribution companies installed 28,86,548 smart pre-payment meters across the country in October 2019, of which BPDB installed 11,32,083 smart prepayment meters, BREB 8,10,590, DPDC 4,35,552, DESCO 2,93,838, WZPDCL 1,95,591 and NESCO 18,894'. Only the two Dhaka figures are used.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Known limits of this passport
  • Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
  • Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
  • A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
  • The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.