India’s total smart meter installation count has reached nearly 2 million, according to a recent government release.
As of November 30, 2020, India had a total of 19.62 lakh smart meters with most of the installations being attributed to Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) under the Smart Meter National Programme (SMNP).
| Smart Meter Installations in India | ||
| (As of November 30, 2020) | ||
| Agency/Programme | No. of meters | % share |
| Smart Grid Pilot Projects | 1,56,220 | 8.0 |
| National Smart Grid Mission (NSGM) | 5,183 | 0.3 |
| Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS) | 32,599 | 1.7 |
| Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) | 14,56,961 | 74.2 |
| Utility-owned Projects | 3,11,373 | 15.9 |
| Total | 19,62,336 | 100.0 |
EESL has a share of nearly 75 per cent of the total smart meters installed in the country. The number of installations by EESL was around 14.57 lakh, as of November 30, 2020.
Power distribution utilities have collectively installed 3.11 lakh smart meters, while 1.56 lakh installations have come by way of the Smart Grid Pilot Projects. It may be mentioned that there are 11 smart grid pilot projects, under the aegis of the Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS), most of which have been completed.
Under the IPDS, excluding the smart grid pilot projects, there have been 32,599 smart meter installations, as of November 30, 2020.
Smart Grid projects, under the National Smart Grid Mission (NSGM) have together seen the commissioning of 5183 smart meters, as of November 30, 2020. There are currently five NSGM smart grid projects taking shape, including two in Chandigarh. Rajasthan, Odisha and Jharkhand have one project each.
EESL leads
EESL, a joint venture of Central PSUs in the power sector, is spearheading the Smart Meter National Programme (SMNP) that aims to replace 25 crore conventional energy meters with smart meters. All the programmes under SMNP are being implemented under the BOOT model where all the upfront investment is made by EESL. The payback to EESL comes by way of cost savings realized by power utilities. These utilities are expected to make monthly payments, typically spread over 7-8 years, to EESL.
This year, EESL installed 50,000 smart meters for consumers of New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC). With this, NDMC, which is a power distribution utility, became the first Indian power utility to have all its consumers equipped with smart meters.
Under SMNP, EESL has so far installed most of its smart meters in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, New Delhi and Bihar. In the time to come, smart meters rollouts by EESL are expected in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, among others. Prepaid meters are going to be rolled out in Uttar Pradesh and Tripura, for which agreements have already been signed between EESL and the state government authorities concerned.
Uttar Pradesh has highest share
Thanks to its high AT&C losses, Uttar Pradesh was the prime focus area for India’s smart meter rollout plans. With the result, this northern state today has the highest smart meter installation base. As of November 30, 2020, Uttar Pradesh had 7.78 lakh smart meters installations, spread over 11 cities.
Going prepaid
It may be recalled that during FY21, the Union power ministry has issued guidelines to all states to convert existing consumer meters into prepaid smart meters. The extent of prepaid smart meters is currently very limited. Bihar, it is learnt, has 25,000 smart prepaid meters, installed by EESL.
Featured photograph sourced from oracle.blogs.com is for illustration only
