Smart meters to revolutionise India’s energy system

Ratna Garapati, Managing Director & CEO of CyanConnode India, expressed excitement about the potential of smart metering in India and CyanConnode’s plans to bring the remotest corners of the country under its gambit in an exclusive conversation with EPR Magazine.
Smart Metering: Key to India’s Carbon Emission Reduction and Sustainable Energy Transition
Indian industries are working towards the national vision of carbon emission reduction. Smart meters are an integral part of a flexible, de-centralised and de-carbonised energy system, which is central to India reducing its carbon emissions and reliance on unsustainable energy sources. As the central component of a digitalised smarter energy system, smart metering will facilitate better integration of renewable power and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, through efficiently managing energy supply and demand by using near-real time energy data.
CyanConnode, currently a world leader in design and development of narrowband RF mesh networks for smart metering, has kept climate action and sustainability at the core of its business where >50% of its revenues come from products and services that contribute to environmental objectives such as climate change mitigation and adaptation, waste and pollution reduction, and the circular economy. With our current orderbook in India, we have the potential to save over 1 lakh litres of fuel annually.

India’s journey towards digitalisation and transitioning to smart meters 
Any ambitious and large-scale initiative goes through teething issues and initial hurdles where the focus is on building a strong foundation and to overcome any barriers and challenges. This was the case with smart metering in India as well, when sevral pilots were rolled out around 2014. CyanConnode had already been active and participated in few of these pilots and rolling them out successfully. Around 2018-19, the Indian Smart Metering landscape crossed this stage with immense contribution from the Government and moved on to its first large-scale project through EESL with an installation of 5 million smart meters. As of today over 5.2 million smart meters have already been installed of which over 1.2 million meters are exclusively communicating on CyanConnode’s communication network. Currently, tenders targeting about 115 million smart meters are already out and I believe we have hit the ‘Tipping Point’. We will begin to experience all of the benefits of smart metering in the coming few months.
Overcoming Hurdles and Moving towards Large-scale Implementation
The Government intends to achieve the goal of 250 million smart meter connected homes by 2025. We are confident that almost the entire 250 million will be bid out by 2025 and a majority of these would be implemented by 2027-28 as the implementation phase as per the Standard Bidding Document under Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) is 27 months. We are ready and geared up to support the AMISPs, Meter OEMs and utilities for all the communications related requirements for this large-scale implementation.

Smart meters will address utility concerns about revenue leakage and energy waste.
Smart Metering is helping Discoms recover losses. The impact data has already been published by organisations like EESL where the Discoms are making significant additional revenue per month per meter across states. In addition, in states like Bihar where the implementation of Smart pre-paid meters is happening, Discoms are earning revenue upfront, resulting in better cashflows. We can track defaulting consumers, theft cases, erroneous usage, etc. using smart meters.
The benefits range from identifying theft cases and reduction in AT&C losses due to improved billing and collection efficiency to timely determination of defective meters which was not previously possible through manual reading. But perhaps the most significant change that has been witnessed is reduction in cases of bill correction, demonstrating the efficacy of smart meters.

Revolutionising Discoms’ Revenue Recovery
The Government has envisioned 250 million households adopting prepaid smart meters in the next few years, with a potential to generate savings of about INR 10 trillion in the next decade through reduced billing and collection inefficiencies in the system. The fact that the funding under RDSS will be available only if the Discom commits to an agreed loss reduction trajectory has pushed Discoms to actively look at Smart Meters as a strong tool. The strong payment mechanism, listed in SBD, from the utilities to the AMISPs has pushed for a larger participation from AMISPs in all these tenders.
Using free energy is not a viable means of achieving any goal. We consume energy and pay for it, and some initiatives may arise occasionally to support particular sectors. However, it is crucial to ensure that all meters, including those used in agriculture, are upgraded to smart meters. Currently, there is no comprehensive energy audit in the agricultural industry because not every farm has a meter. Consequently, it is challenging to monitor whether farmers are paying for their energy usage, and visibility is essential. This is where smart meters can make a difference
Plans ahead
We have a plan to introduce long-range RF solution, which will bring significant benefits in rural areas. Currently, we rely on cellular technology to provide coverage in rural and hilly regions, but this has its limitations. However, a long-range solution, can overcome this issue. In a small community or a village with five or ten homes, we can establish a mesh network to provide connectivity and have the data transmitted through our long-range RF solution. This approach reduces the cost of sending an AMISP representative to those homes to collect meter data for connections or disconnections, and it aligns with our sustainability goals. This is where the long-range solution can make a difference.
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