Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi

New Delhi, Nov 6: India will have to ramp up smart meter installations to nearly 2.5 lakh per day to achieve its target of deploying 25 crore meters by March 2028, according to a report by CareEdge Ratings released on Friday.

The report noted that around 6.5 crore smart meters had been installed across the country as of April 2026, accounting for nearly one-fourth of the overall target.

The required daily installation rate is more than 2.5 times the approximately 99,000 meters installed per day in FY26. However, the pace of deployment has improved considerably in recent years, with additions rising from 48 lakh meters in FY24 to 1.47 crore in FY25 and 3.63 crore in FY26.

Maharashtra accounts for around 1.1 crore installations, representing 17 per cent of the cumulative total. Maharashtra, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh together contribute nearly 47 per cent of all installations, although deployment continues to vary significantly across states.

Uttar Pradesh has completed around 32 per cent of its sanctioned installations, compared with approximately 52 per cent in Bihar. This highlights the importance of execution capabilities and state-level implementation in converting allocations into actual deployment, the report said.

CareEdge Ratings estimated that full-scale smart meter deployment could generate additional cumulative revenue of around Rs 1.84 lakh crore over the five years ending FY31. The gains are expected to come from improved billing and collection efficiency and a reduction in Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses.

The report pointed out that key sector indicators have improved, with AT&C losses declining from 20.73 per cent in FY20 to 15.04 per cent in FY25. Billing efficiency has reached nearly 88 per cent, while collection efficiency stands at around 97 per cent.

The gap between the Average Cost of Supply and Average Revenue Realised has also narrowed from Rs 0.72 per kWh in FY19 to Rs 0.07 per kWh in FY25, although it has not been completely eliminated.

Smart metering has the potential to improve billing efficiency to 97-98 per cent, raise collection efficiency beyond 99 per cent under prepaid models and bring AT&C losses down to around 12 per cent.

However, the report identified limited prepaid adoption as a major constraint. Despite approximately 6.5 crore smart meter installations, only around 9 per cent of the meters were operating in prepaid mode as of April 2026.

“The economics of smart metering will ultimately depend on how effectively utilities translate installation into operational change. Accurate readings must feed into billing and payment systems, while consumers need the confidence and tools to manage their consumption,” said Ravleen Sethi, Director, CareEdge Ratings.

The report further noted that nearly 89 per cent of electricity bills are generated using actual meter readings, but around 49 per cent are based on automated readings.