India Smart Meter Market Overview, 2027

Digitization has advanced considerably in the last decade and devices that were considered as science fiction are today at our disposal. So is the smart meter technology that has started revolutionizing the energy resources. To use energy more efficiently is at the heart of this revolution. Smart meters have a number of advantages over its traditional counterpart like it allows consumers to switch on and off power remotely, it communicates with Data management systems, it is tamper proof, it optimizes grid load, reduces power demand during peak hours, allows consumers to keep a track of their consumption, voltage quality is maintained throughout and can communicate through wired or non wired technologies like LAN, DSL or Zigbee, wifi, cellular. However even today Rural India is dependent on manual collection system for power usage is highly inefficient and incurs huge amounts of losses. At country level, still a lot of work needs to be carried out to overcome existing disaster management framework and new customized plans to reflect long term and unpredictable nature of climate risks. Power equipments standards, electrifying codes, energy procurement and contractual processes need to be upgraded for resilient requirements. The rural populace needs to be educated to operate, maintain and repair these smart meters to become self reliant.

According to the report title "India Smart Meter Market Overview, 2027", published by Bonafide research, the smart meter market in India is expected to grow over 15% during the forecast period ending 2027. Historically the smart meter market grew by 107% during the period 2016-2021. Smart electric meters were reportedly installed on a massive roll out schemes in residential sector and further too forecasted to grow rapidly over the forecast period. Smart water meters are gaining traction in the Indian market as the government is pushing the installations to be carried out rapidly in residential homes across India and union territories. Smart water meters have market share of above 35% and expected to grow robustly over the forecast period. However, smart gas meters market is yet not so evolved and thus it has the lowest market penetration. The deployment of gas meters requires utmost attention else it can prove to be fatal by accidents or leaks. The Narrow band IoT technology is used in AMI metering in India that is second generation electric meters and enables two way communications through PLC. It gives readings evry 15 minutes and eliminates the manpower need to manually note down readings. It also reduces blackouts and outages and also the time frame of transition. The AMI meters have been replaced in India to the extent of 62% and out of which maximum are replaced in residential sector and commercial sector.

India has one of the largest smart meter roll out plans which is luring in Canada's Pension Plan Investment Board and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority for funding. India has a aim to replace 250 Million traditional meters with smart meters which will reform the electricity distribution by overcoming thefts and improving efficiencies of discoms. Reliance Industries Ltd plans to leverage its Jio business to offer meter data collection, communication cards, telecom and cloud hosting services to discoms. French government owned power utility Electricite de France SA has been involved in for putting up 5 million smart meters.

The huge task of replacing 25 Crores conventional meters is currently being carried out under the Smart Meter National Programme (SMNP), by Energy Efficient Services Limited (EESL). Under this programme, 19 Lakh smart meters have already been installed across various states. EESL is also implementing smart metering projects being launched by the discoms at their independent initiative in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar, Rajasthan, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Delhi etc., on OPEX basis. Under this, Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) is making the initial capital expenditure and, the discoms are paid back to the company on a monthly rental basis. The minister explained that there are several reasons for Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) losses, which also include metering related problems. Under the special category states in India the smart meter would have cost reductions around Rs.900, other than special category states Rs. 450 and the incentive for special category states would be Rs. 675 or whichever is lesser. This scheme includes all north-eastern states including Sikkim, as well as Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep will be treated as Special Category States/UTs.

India is the fast-growing global market with a clear gas expansion road map in the next 8 yrs. The Indian market pursues high quality requirements that as specified in the European standards, which has been dominated by European and USA meter manufacturers in the last decades. The Indian government has decided to implement the programme "under the BOOT model on cost plus approach," which means that the central government will provide all capital and operating costs. For individual states and utilities, it would mean no upfront expenses for investing in this programme. The government has been providing financial assistance under various schemes, including IPDS and NSGM. The RDSS envisages smart metering in the OPEX mode and provides financial support to discoms opting for prepaid smart metering. Smart meter manufacturing companies in India are gearing up to replace all conventional static meters with smart meters in the coming years. Currently the Smart Meter Manufacturers in India do not have enough capacity to serve the entire market.

Considered in this report

• Geography: India
• Base year: 2021
• Estimated year: 2022
• Forecast year: 2027

Aspects covered in this report

• India smart meter market with its value and forecast along with its segments
• Various drivers and challenges
• On-going trends and developments
• Five force models
• Top profiled companies
• Strategic recommendation

By Type in the report

• Electric
• Gas
• Water

By Technology in the report

• AMI
• AMR

By End User in the report

• Industrial
• Commercial
• Residential

The approach of the report:

This report consists of a combined approach of primary as well as secondary research. Initially, secondary research was used to get an understanding of the market and listing out the companies that are present in the market. The secondary research consists of third party sources such as press releases, annual report of companies, analyzing the government generated reports and databases. After gathering the data from secondary sources primary research was conducted by making telephonic interviews with the leading players about how the market is functioning and then conducted trade calls with dealers and distributors of the market. Post this we have started doing primary calls to consumers by equally segmenting consumers in regional aspects, tier aspects, age group, and gender. Once we have primary data with us we have started verifying the details obtained from secondary sources.

Intended audience

This report can be useful to industry consultants, manufacturers, suppliers, associations & organizations related to smart meter industry, government bodies and other stakeholders to align their market-centric strategies. In addition to marketing & presentations, it will also increase competitive knowledge about the industry.

Keywords: smart meter, smart water meter, smart electric meter, smart gas meter, energy, consumption, Electric, water, gas, consumer, billing, bill, government, AMI, AMR, residential, industrial, commercial, hardware, software, three phase, single phase, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir, Gujarat, Mumbai, Kolkata, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Union Territories, South India, Karnataka, New Delhi, Delhi, Gurgaon, Indian government, reliance, Tata power, Tata.