SMART MEASURE

Smart meters with their two-way communication feature are key to addressing the country's myriad energy-related challenges while paving the way for a sustainable and resilient energy future

- Ashish Sinha

A CRITICAL component of India’s power sector reforms, smart meters are expected to contribute significantly to improving the billing and collection efficiencies of distribution companies (discoms). What’s more, these meters can have multi-uses as a single point entry into the consumer’s home as these can connect, read and transmit data related to electricity, gas and water, all via a single hub.

For now, however, the government is speeding up the installation of 250 million smart meters across the country. As of now, about 8.5 million smart meters are in service. Under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS), smart meters are being deployed through the public-private partnership on a total expenditure basis.

The national aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses of dicoms stood at 23 per cent as of FY 2021-22 but the actual losses, including agricultural losses, would lie between 30-35 per cent, experts say. In such a scenario, the government had no option but to come up with the Smart Meter National Programme (SMNP), since smart meters provided an excellent solution for increasing efficiencies. The results are for everyone to see. In FY23, the AT&C losses of distribution companies decreased to 15.4 per cent from over 17 per cent in FY22, the power ministry highlighted in its year-end review, attributing it to the various measures taken under RDSS, which aims to reduce the AT&C losses across the country to 12-14 per cent by FY25, a senior government official said.