Bihar today is the leading state in terms of consumer smart meter installations, official statistics suggest.
According to data available on the National Smart Grid Mission portal, as of March 18, 2025, Bihar had a total of 63.55 lakh smart meters installed, accounting for over 25 per cent of the country’s total such installations that stood at 239.53 lakh.
Bihar has a total sanctioned volume of 172.09 lakh smart meters, of which the currently installed volume represents around 37 per cent. Interestingly, almost the entire volume of sanctioned meters has been awarded.
In Bihar, smart meter deployment began way back in 2018, much before the advent of the Centrally-sponsored Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme.
It is therefore not surprising that of the 63.55 lakh smart meters currently installed in Bihar, as many as 45.29 lakh are out of the purview of RDSS. In fact, the remaining 18.26 lakh installations were part of non-RDSS programmes that were subsequently subsumed under RDSS.
The RDSS-backed installations in Bihar are led by EESL supported by other agencies like IntelliSmart and Genus. On the non-RDSS side, entities like Genus Power, Adani Group, NCC and Secure Meters are involved.
Polaris Smart Metering (formerly, Gram Power), an energy technology company founded in US, is also supporting Bihar’s smart metering activities. It was mandated with three projects, aggregating 58,600 smart meters, all of which have been installed. Polaris was associated mainly with state power utility South Bihar Power Distribution Company Ltd (SBPDCL) but was also working with private discoms like India Power Corporation Ltd (IPCL) and Bhagalpur Electricity Distribution Company Pvt Ltd (BEDPCL).
While Bihar is currently leading in terms of smart meters installed, thanks to its first-mover advantage, it will lose this distinction as smart metering installations pick up in other states.
With a total of 172.09 lakh smart meters sanctioned, Bihar, by current thinking, will eventually ranked fifth, in terms of state-wise smart meter installations.
Other states
In terms of number of smart meters – both RDSS and non-RDSS – Uttar Pradesh is the leading state with 309.78 lakh meters sanctioned. Of these, around 25.31 lakh were installed as of March 18, 2025. UP’s smart metering programme mainly revolves around RDSS under which 87 per cent of its smart meters (or 269.79 lakh) have been sanctioned.
Speaking purely of RDSS-backed smart metering, Tamil Nadu is the leader with 300 lakh smart meters sanctioned. However, implementation has yet to begin due to delays in finalizing tenders. It may be recalled that in January 2025, the contract awarded to a private utility was cancelled. It is now learnt that fresh tenders will be invited under six packages—as against four earlier—covering the quantum of 300 lakh smart meters. Nevertheless, Tamil Nadu today has a small installed base of 1.30 lakh smart meters commissioned under a non-RDSS scheme.
In terms of smart meters installed under RDSS, Assam is today ranked first with 28.14 lakh installations. Another 4.67 lakh have been put up under non-RDSS schemes.
Note: This story takes into account consumer smart meters only. Specifically it does not deal with other smart meters like distribution transformer (DT) meters and feeder meters. Featured photograph (source: IntelliSmart Infrastructure Pvt Ltd) is for representation only.