Smart meters lure PE to India's power sector

PE firms are eyeing the smart meter push as a high-potential opportunity

- Dipti Sharma & Mansi Verma

Smart electricity metering in India may offer a promising and largely untapped opportunity for private equity investors, given its $30 billion potential and some recent investments in a sector that has traditionally been dominated by government-run utilities. Actis invested $200 million in a joint venture with EDF India in February that will deploy smart meter infrastructure in the country.

Singapore's GIC invested ₹519 crore in Jaipur-based Genus Power Infrastructures in July 2023. They agreed to set up a platform to install smart meters and provide associated services, committing to an initial pipeline with a capital outlay of about $2 billion.

The government will invest an estimated $30 billion to install 250 million smart meters in the country, GIC and Genus said in July 2023.