Techno Electric & Engineering Company Ltd (Techno) is upbeat on prospects for digital substations, according to the company’s top official.
Addressing an investor call recently, P.P. Gupta, the company’s Chairman & Managing Director said that digital substations represent the next frontier of power infrastructure modernization.
“Our early investment and positioning in this space provides us with a meaningful competitive advantage as the country pursues its grid transformation agenda,” Gupta observed.
Techo is regarded as an early mover in this direction. The company recently won an order to build four 132kV digital substations for Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), a Central PSU.
We are among the early movers. Our recent order for 132kV digital substation at four locations in DVC grid command area is one of the most advanced of its kind in India. “It reinforces our capability to deliver generation-next infrastructure aligned with the evolving needs of the power sector,” Gupta noted.
Smart metering projects
Meanwhile, Techno has targeted to complete all its ongoing smart metering projects by the end of this fiscal year, FY27. The company currently has a total smart metering order book of 2.24 million smart meters under the AMISP model.
As of March 31, 2026, the company had executed 70 per cent of this order book, up from 50 per cent as of end-December 2025 (closing of Q3FY26).
“Our current priority is clear: complete all ongoing projects on time and with full efficiency,” noted Gupta. “Given the margin pressures we are observing in recent tenders, we have consciously adopted a selective and disciplined bidding approach,” he cautioned.
Techno’s ongoing smart metering projects, all under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS), are spread across four locations – Indore (0.55 million meters), Ranchi (0.53 million), Agartala (0.43 million) and Kashmir (0.73 million). While the Indore and Ranchi projects will be completed by September 2026 (end-H1FY27), the other two should be commissioned by March 2027 (end-FY27).
Apart from these 2.24 million smart meters, Techno has an operational portfolio of 0.25 million smart meters in UT of J&K, installed through projects awarded under the Prime Minister’s Development Package (PMDP).
Gupta also indicated that Techno’s smart metering business under the AMISP model has turned cash-accretive. During FY27, the company plans to invest Rs.650 crore in the smart metering business, out of which around Rs.400 crore will be generated from the commissioned meters. The additional capital requirement will be limited to around Rs.250 crore, the top official said.
Order book
As of March 31, 2026, Techno had an unexecuted order book of around Rs.9,600 crore that included roughly Rs.7,000 crore in power transmission, Rs.1,600 crore in smart metering and the remaining Rs.1,000 crore in flue-gas desulphurization (FGD) projects.
Besides, the company had received confirmed orders of Rs.386 crore in the current year so far (up to around May 26, 2026) and was placed L1 with respect to mandates worth Rs.810 crore.
The expected order intake in FY27 is around Rs.4,000 crore, the Techno CMD said.
Also read: Techno Electric targets to complete its RDSS smart metering mandates by December 2026
Featured photograph is for representation only