Over three and a half years after the government launched a program to install 250 million electricity consumer smart meters by the end of the financial year 2026, the results are dismal. According to the latest National Smart Grid Mission data, only 20.85 million smart meters have been installed under various programs.

In all, 222.35 million smart meters were approved, and 38.02 million were awarded. The deployment is less than 10% of the target.

The target date for the Smart Meter National Program under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) is March 31, 2026. Given the current pace of installation, the program will likely miss the target by a considerable margin.

Under RDSS, the Indian government provides a grant of ₹900 (~$10.3), or 15% of the cost, whichever is lower, for every smart meter. It aims to make the distribution sector financially more sustainable and operationally efficient.

The program has not taken off in several states. Not a single consumer smart meter has been installed in Karnataka, while Kerala has installed only 805 so far.

Bihar, Assam Best Performers

The best-performing state is Bihar, which has installed 6.18 million smart meters. Assam follows with 3.07 million, and Uttar Pradesh is third at 2.26 million. Madhya Pradesh (1.89 million), Punjab (1.3 million), Chhattisgarh (1.28 million), and Andhra Pradesh (1.02 million) are among the better performing states.

Haryana, Maharashtra, and Gujarat have seen moderate progress, installing under 1 million smart meters each.

According to an analysis by the Ministry of Power, installing smart meters has positively impacted the utilities of Assam and Bihar. About 44% of consumers in Assam saved roughly 50 units per month through consumption tracking and accurate billing. It has also helped the distribution companies of the two states to reduce losses, the benefits of which would ultimately go to the consumers

In an interview with Mercom India, Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, CEO, Airtel Business (India), said installing smart meters in homes will ease the load on the grid and help generation companies manage generation and supply as per demand. Smart meters will not solve all the problems of state utilities, but they are a significant first step toward better financial health.

What are Smart Meters?

A smart meter is an advanced electronic meter with two-way communication and a remotely operated connect/disconnect switch inside the meter. The device comprises a meter and a communication infrastructure to connect the meter with the data center, which is integrated with the Meter Data Management System at the data center or on the cloud.

The main objective of smart metering is to enable near real-time two-way communication between the smart meter and the data center to allow remote reading, monitoring, and control of meters at the consumer end. Smart meters can also be used as prepaid meters or net meters.

The parliamentary standing committee on energy commented in a December 2024 report, “Considering the present pace of installation of Smart Meters, the target of installation of 250 million smart meters by the year 2025-26 seems to be a difficult task.”

The committee observed that although about 51% of the approved smart meters and 75% of the infrastructure works were awarded, only 12% of the overall physical progress has been achieved.

It said that since there are only about 16 months left before the sunset date of March 31, 2026, the Ministry of Power should expedite the implementation to meet the target.

RDSS also envisages system metering at the feeder and distribution transformer (DT) levels. Of the 5.29 million target under DT metering, only 423,192 meters have been installed, while 93,034 feeder level meters of 205,529 have been installed.

Constraints

According to the Ministry of Power, some of the main constraints faced in the speedy installation of smart meters include a lack of adequate awareness at the consumer and utility levels, delays in tendering and award of smart meter works by the utilities and establishment of direct debit facility, and shortage of dedicated IT teams at distribution utility level with knowledge of smart meters.

Other challenges included collecting and validating data for consumer indexing, delays in testing and approvals for field installation and integration tests, and factory acceptance.

The ministry, however, has asserted that India can manufacture 100 million smart meters a year, which is sufficient to meet the demand.