India Smart Meter (Gas, Electricity & Water) Market Overview, 2027

Digitization has advanced considerably in the last decade, and devices that were considered science fiction are today at our disposal. So is the smart meter technology that has started revolutionising energy resources. Using energy more efficiently is at the heart of this revolution. Smart metres have several advantages over traditional meters, including the ability to remotely turn on and off power, communicate with data management systems, are tamper proof, optimise grid load, reduce power demand during peak hours, allow consumers to track their consumption, voltage quality is maintained throughout, and they can communicate via wired or non-wired technologies such as LAN, DSL, or Zigbee, wifi, or cellula. Even today, rural India is dependent on manual collection systems for power usage, which is highly inefficient and incurs huge amounts of losses. At the country level, a lot of work needs to be carried out to overcome the existing disaster management framework and new customized plans to reflect the long-term and unpredictable nature of climate risks. Resilient power equipment 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 (Gas, Electricity & Water) Market Overview, 2027”, published by Actual Market Research (ActualMR), the smart meter market in India is expected to grow by over 15% during the forecast period ending in 2027. Historically, the smart meter market grew by 107% during the period 2016–2021. Smart electric metres are said to have been installed on a massive scale in the residential sector and are expected to grow rapidly over the forecast period.Smart water meters are gaining traction in the Indian market as the government is pushing for the installations to be carried out rapidly in residential homes across India and the union territories. Smart water meters have a market share of above 35% and are expected to grow robustly over the forecast period. However, the smart gas meters market is not yet so evolved and, thus, it has the lowest market penetration. Gas metre installation necessitates extreme caution; otherwise, accidents or leaks can be fatal.The Narrow band IoT technology is used in AMI metering in India, which is a second generation electric meters and enables two way communication through PLC. It gives readings every 15 minutes and eliminates the manpower needed 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%, out of which the maximum are replaced in the residential and commercial sectors.

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 an aim of replacing 250 Million traditional meters with smart meters, which will reform the electricity distribution by overcoming thefts and improving the 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 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 under their independent initiatives in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar, Rajasthan, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Delhi etc., on an 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 and commercial (AT&C) losses, which also include metering-related problems. Under the special category states in India, the smart meter would have a cost reduction of 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, which will be treated as Special Category States/UTs.

India is the fastest-growing global market with a clear gas expansion road map in the next 8 years. The Indian market pursues high quality requirements as specified in European standards, which have been dominated in recent decades by European and American metre manufacturers. The Indian government has decided to implement the programme “under the BOOT model on a 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 
• Electric
• Gas
• Water

By technology 
• AMI
• AMR

By end user 
• 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.