India Installs 49.3 Million Smart Meters, Expands Prepaid Rollout

12 Dec 2025 CW Team

While post-paid billing has traditionally been the norm, the government is now prioritising prepaid smart meters because of the substantial benefits they offer to both consumers and distribution utilities. Installation is being fast-tracked for government establishments, commercial and industrial users, and high-load consumers before being extended to the wider public.

Benefits for Consumers

Convenient small-value recharges

Emergency credit to avoid disconnection at zero balance

Real-time consumption tracking

Error-free billing

Benefits for Distribution Utilities

Prepaid smart metering improves billing and collection efficiency and enables:

Automatic energy accounting

Better load forecasting

Data-driven demand-side management

A stronger foundation for India’s energy transition

These system-level gains ultimately translate into improved services and lower costs for end consumers.

The Ministry of Power noted that early implementation faced challenges due to limited consumer awareness. To build trust and encourage adoption, several advisories and Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) have been issued, including:

Bill rebates for prepaid meter users

No penalties based on maximum demand recorded by smart meters

Easy instalment options for clearing past arrears

Installation of check meters to strengthen confidence in accuracy

Smart meter apps for consumption tracking and quick recharge

Alerts for low balance and emergency credit availability

This information was provided by the Minister of Power, Manohar Lal, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

India has installed 49.3 million smart meters nationwide, of which 16 million are now functioning in prepaid mode. Under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS), prepaid smart metering has been sanctioned for 203.3 million consumers, including 0.211 million feeders and 5.253 million distribution transformers. Of this sanctioned total, 35.8 million smart meters have already been installed, with the remaining installed by states under their own programmes. While post-paid billing has traditionally been the norm, the government is now prioritising prepaid smart meters because of the substantial benefits they offer to both consumers and distribution utilities. Installation is being fast-tracked for government establishments, commercial and industrial users, and high-load consumers before being extended to the wider public. Benefits for Consumers Convenient small-value recharges Emergency credit to avoid disconnection at zero balance Real-time consumption tracking Error-free billing Benefits for Distribution Utilities Prepaid smart metering improves billing and collection efficiency and enables: Automatic energy accounting Better load forecasting Data-driven demand-side management A stronger foundation for India’s energy transition These system-level gains ultimately translate into improved services and lower costs for end consumers. The Ministry of Power noted that early implementation faced challenges due to limited consumer awareness. To build trust and encourage adoption, several advisories and Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) have been issued, including: Bill rebates for prepaid meter users No penalties based on maximum demand recorded by smart meters Easy instalment options for clearing past arrears Installation of check meters to strengthen confidence in accuracy Smart meter apps for consumption tracking and quick recharge Alerts for low balance and emergency credit availability This information was provided by the Minister of Power, Manohar Lal, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

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