India Deliberates Nationwide Roll-out of Smart Meters to Resuscitate Utilities

India is deliberating a plan to install smart meters in every home and business as part of its enduring effort to turn around the country’s unwell power sector, as per officials with knowledge of the situation.

The plan under contemplation would necessitate 300 million smart meters over three years, said the officials. The central power ministry has commenced discussions with manufacturers on supplying the meters, which develop efficiency by monitoring and transmitting power use data.

As part of the plan, the central government is pondering providing subsidies to partially cover the costs, one of the officials said. Initial evaluations by the government put the cost for the meters at about 2,000 rupees ($29) apiece, or $8.7 billion in total, according to one of the officials. That’s partially based on an expectation that prices would be lower than a smaller government tender for 5 million smart meters in 2017 at 2,503 rupees.

Extensive use of smart meters could be a game changer for ailing Indian distribution utilities. These distributors lose approximately one-fifth of their revenue through various technical and commercial reasons counting power theft or incompetent billing and collecting, according to the power ministry.

Their poor financial health prevents them from supplying uninterrupted power countrywide, which is needed to fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s power-for-all goal. Other efforts to revive the distributors and spread access to power include promoting energy-efficient LED lighting, solar-power irrigation pumps and using insulated wiring to prevent theft.

Some efforts to help have been slow accomplishing anticipated results. For example, the combined losses of state distributors participating in a central aid plan jumped 62% to about 240 billion rupees in the first nine months of the fiscal year to March.