By Atul Bali, Director, National Smart Grid Mission and Expert Group on Smart Metering
India’s energy distribution landscape is undergoing a digital transformation, led by the large-scale roll-out of smart meters. As of mid-2025, over 32 million smart meters have been deployed across the country under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS), out of a sanctioned base of 223 million. Although the current deployment rate stands at just 14 per cent, early outcomes, especially from leading states like Bihar, Assam and Gujarat, have provided vital learnings.
Policy evolution
India’s smart metering journey has been shaped by over a decade of policy evolution and institutional capacity building. The initial momentum was set in motion with the establishment of the India Smart Grid Task Force and the India Smart Grid Forum in 2010. This was followed by the sanctioning of pilot projects in 2012 and the release of the Smart Grid Vision and Roadmap in 2013.
The formal establishment of the National Smart Grid Mission (NSGM) in 2015 marked a turning point. Over the next few years, technical standards such as IS 15959 and IS 16444 were notified, and the Smart Grid Knowledge Centre (SGKC) was inaugurated in 2018 to serve as a knowledge repository of the NSGM for imparting smart grid training and capacity building to utility professionals.
By 2019, the NSGM had developed standard frameworks, detailed project reports and model requests for proposals, paving the way for large-scale deployments. In 2021, the Ministry of Power (MoP) issued standard bidding documents for advanced metering infrastructure service providers (AMISPs), and smart metering received a major boost with the launch of the RDSS, targeting the installation of 250 million smart meters.
Subsequent milestones include the operationalisation of a virtual SGKC (2022) and the installation of 6 million smart meters by March 2023, 10 million meters by March 2024 and 25 million meters by March 2025.
Progress and disparities
According to NSGM statistics, smart metering progress remains largely varied across states owing to on-ground execution pace across states. In the smart consumer metering category, the majority of states are accelerating the deployment to achieve the targeted meter deployment numbers. However, the national average remains low, with total deployment across India standing at 32 million meters, which is just 14 per cent of the sanctioned quantity across the country.
In distribution transformer (DT) metering, the overall figure for India is at 664,000 which is only 13 per cent of the sanctioned quantity. Feeder metering has seen better progress with states rigorously fast pacing their deployments. The national deployment for feeder metering currently stands at 125,000, which is about 61 per cent of the sanctioned quantity across the country.
Challenges in implementation
While the smart metering programme has advanced significantly in recent years, the pace of deployment continues to be shaped by a range of structural, technical and consumer-side challenges. The lack of skilled personnel for meter installation on field also contributed to unprecedented delays. Consumer resistance and awareness gaps remain among the most pressing concerns.
From the technology perspective, communication infrastructure remains challenging across states. At the regulatory level, more facilitation is required, especially with respect to critical enablers such as prepayment mandates, time-of-use or time-of-day tariffs, and demand response mechanisms. Operationally, the ability to connect, disconnect or recharge meters within specified timelines is constrained by procedural delays and gaps in coordination across AMISPs, discom field teams and IT backend systems.
Operational and infrastructure constraints
Legacy IT infrastructure and its integration with the MDM is another critical bottleneck for many discoms. Obsolete billing systems and fragmented data flows have made it difficult to integrate smart meter data in a meaningful, actionable manner.
Another pressing issue is the non-communication of installed meters. In many urban and rural pockets, reliance on a single communication technology has led to inconsistent data transmission, latency problems and blind spots in energy tracking. The slow pace of installation compounded, by the lack of skilled manpower, has been a cause for concern and needs timely intervention by both utilities and AMISPs.
Delays have occurred at multiple points, culminating in delayed supply and field deployment. These issues have been compounded by procedural rigidity and inadequate field coordination, resulting in significant slippages against targeted roll-outs.
Another systemic issue lies in meter testing, wherein testing of meters over and above the standard thresholds as per the model standard bidding documents (SBDs) affects deployment. As a result, any defect identification triggers significant delays. To mitigate this, several states are now leveraging in-house labs not only for testing but also for training personnel on meter installation and data handling.
Despite these challenges, early implementation in states such as Assam, Bihar, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh has generated strong insights. The large-scale deployments in these states serve as test beds for identifying behavioural, logistical and institutional hurdles.
On the outcome side, benefits are beginning to materialise. Smart meters have helped discoms improve operational efficiency, reduce billing errors and improve visibility across their networks. Consumers now have access to near real-time consumption data, transparent billing and pilots on time-of-day tariffs. These features are gradually enabling demand-side participation and strengthening the foundation for dynamic pricing and distributed energy integration.
Key initiatives
Recognising the importance of deriving value from meter data, the NSGM has encouraged AMISPs to pilot analytics-based use cases. These time-bound demonstrations are helping illustrate the real-world applications of smart meter data in areas such as load forecasting, energy theft detection and consumer segmentation.
Efforts have also been made to enhance consumer-centric applications. Mobile app features, including real-time consumption tracking, alerts and outage notifications, are being promoted as part of the engagement strategy. Further, to support accountability, relevant guidelines are issued regarding check meters/burnt or faulty meters, etc., helping resolve long-standing ambiguities in grievance redressal.
Finally, with cybersecurity becoming a key concern, additional provisions have been included in the requisite provisions already mentioned in the AMISP SBDs. These include mandatory safeguards for data privacy as per the DPDP Act, system integrity, multifactor authentication and third-party auditing by cert-in auditors by the utility, etc., further reinforcing the security and resilience of the smart metering ecosystem.
Benefits for stakeholders
For discoms, the adoption of smart meters has led to measurable improvements in billing and collection efficiency. The transition to prepaid models has helped reduce interest costs while simultaneously lowering aggregate technical and commercial losses. Data analytics use cases focusing on demand forecasting would help discoms reduce their demand-side management payables and power purchase costs. Through load analysis enabled by smart meters, utilities can now identify stress points and reduce asset failure rates. This has allowed for deferred capex and better infrastructure planning. On the consumer side, the most visible change is the ability to manage electricity usage in near-real time. With digital apps providing alerts and usage analytics, consumers would be able to make more informed decisions, particularly during peak hours or billing cycles.
The ability of smart meters to integrate with rooftop solar, electric vehicles and other distributed energy resources also reflects the future-readiness of the infrastructure. With support for net metering and bidirectional flows, smart meters are gradually becoming enablers of prosumer participation.
Future outlook
Looking ahead, the focus will shift towards institutionalising insights and driving consistent performance across all discoms. The first step is to replicate proven data analytics use cases through structured management information system tools that inform daily decision-making. The NSGM has been focusing on training and capacity building efforts to enhance analytical maturity at the utility level. Sustained momentum will require close monitoring of daily installation progress.
To this end, discoms and AMISPs will be required to operate against clear, measurable targets with prompt resolution of implementation bottlenecks. Strengthening the implementation of the payment security mechanism and ensuring predictable cash flows to service providers is key to maintaining execution timelines. Parallelly, efforts to review and streamline discom cash flows will help improve project management discipline.
Finally, the programme will continue to align with the broader Make in India vision by supporting the domestic manufacturing of metering infrastructure and components. The aim is to build not just scale, but also resilience and long-term sustainability in the smart metering ecosystem.
