The next phase of India’s smart-meter revolution will depend on turning millions of connected endpoints into a smarter, more intelligent grid, argues Sushil Agarwal.
India has spent the past few years building one of the world’s largest digital power infrastructure programmes through the rollout of smart meters. As of August 2026, more than 75 million smart meters have been installed across consumer, distribution transformer and feeder categories, including over 60 million under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS). With a sanctioned base exceeding 200 million meters, the country has demonstrated its ability to deploy smart-metering infrastructure at scale.
The next challenge is not installation, but utilisation.
A smart meter is far more than a digital billing device. It is a connected sensor that continuously generates information on electricity consumption, network conditions and consumer behaviour. While the first phase of India’s smart-meter programme focused on visibility and revenue assurance, the next phase must focus on converting data into operational intelligence. The real success of the programme will depend not on how many meters are deployed, but on how effectively utilities use the information they generate.
Beyond Billing Cycles
The benefits of smart metering are already visible. National data for FY2021-25 shows aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses declining from 21.91 per cent to 15.04 per cent, while billing efficiency improved from 84.08 per cent to 87.59 per cent and collection efficiency rose from 92.9 per cent to 97 per cent.
However, the bigger opportunity lies in transforming smart meters from revenue-management tools into operational assets.
Outage management illustrates this shift. Traditionally, utilities learnt about disruptions only after consumers registered complaints. Smart meters equipped with outage and ‘last gasp’ capabilities can notify utilities in near real time. When integrated with outage-management systems and network topology, they enable faster fault identification, targeted deployment of field teams and quicker restoration of supply.
The same applies to loss reduction. Granular consumption data allows utilities to compare energy supplied to a network segment with energy accounted for downstream. Persistent gaps can help identify technical losses, commercial leakages, meter anomalies and other operational issues. In this role, the smart meter becomes an active component of utility management rather than a passive accounting instrument.
Building Grid Intelligence
The next stage of value creation will come from combining smart-meter data with information from feeders, distribution transformers, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems and other network assets.
Patterns such as abnormal load behaviour, recurring outages and changing consumption trends can help utilities identify stress points before they affect service reliability. When combined with weather forecasts, maintenance records and asset-management systems, these insights can support predictive maintenance and more efficient network planning.
The objective should not be to make every meter independently intelligent. It should be to create a grid that becomes smarter through the collective intelligence of millions of connected endpoints. Achieving this requires seamless integration across communications networks, head-end systems, meter data management platforms, billing systems, outage-management tools and field-force applications. Without interoperability, utilities risk accumulating vast volumes of data without generating actionable insights.
At the same time, cybersecurity, resilience and data governance must become central priorities. Consumers, too, are set to play a larger role. As rooftop solar, electric vehicles, time-of-day tariffs and distributed energy resources become more widespread, smart-meter data will help households and businesses optimise consumption and make informed energy choices.
India’s smart-meter programme will ultimately be judged not by deployment numbers alone, but by whether it delivers a smarter, more reliable and consumer-responsive electricity system. The country has achieved installation at scale. The next frontier is intelligence at scale.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Sushil Agarwal, Chief Operating Officer, Genus Power Infrastructures Ltd. (GPIL), brings over three decades of leadership experience across the government, public sector, startup ecosystem, and large private enterprises in the telecom and energy sectors.