Much has changed in the electricity sector in the last few years. Electricity generation capacity is now surplus after years of deficits, and the price of solar power has fallen by 70%. But one thing that has barely changed is the performance of the electricity distribution companies (discoms), which continue to bleed money. They also face operational challenges, despite some improvements in the reduction of losses (and, importantly, 100% electrification). There are now proposals to install 250 million smart meters across all users to try and radically improve the discoms. While a top-down push is important, unless there is bottom-up buy-in, such solutions will likely be under-effective, or worse, crowd out parallel or complementary efforts.
A Smart Grid is a transformation of the electricity grid where digital communications and control enable a more nimble, resilient, flexible, and efficient grid. It’s this last point that is pushing smart meters, which can be a tool for cutting down losses, which span under-billing, under-collection, and outright theft. Given the state of technologies and metering deployments across discoms, it’s inevitable to try and leapfrog to smart meters.
