From smart meters to automation in generation, transmission, substation ops

The transition toward a digital and consumer-centric grid began with the nationwide rollout of smart meters, enabling accurate billing, two-way communication, and demand side visibility. The success of this transformation owes much to indigenous manufacturing, with AEW emerging as one of India's largest suppliers of smart meters under RDSS and DISCOM modernisation projects.

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India operates one of the world's largest synchronous power grids linking over numerous utilities and consumers across five interconnected regional grids.

Smart grids and the role of automation

A smart grid combines digital communication, control, and analytics to ensure efficiency and resilience. While smart meters form the visible interface of this system, the invisible core lies in automation enabling self-monitoring and self-healing networks. Automation empowers utilities to:

Balance demand and supply dynamically.

Detect and isolate faults automatically.

Enable predictive maintenance and asset optimisation.

RTUs and substation automation

Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) are central to India's next phase of grid modernisation. Acting as bridges between field sensors and central SCADA systems, RTUs collect and transmit data for real time decision making. Modern Indian substations are adopting IEC 61850-based architectures, integrating:

Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) and Bay Control Units (BCUs) for local logic execution.