7.3 million smart meters installed across country till Nov: Govt tells RS

Around 73 lakh smart prepaid meters have been installed across the country till November, according to the official data which also showed 'nil' installations in 11 states and two Union Territories.

As per the data shared in the Parliament on Monday, around 7.3 million smart prepaid meters have been installed till November 29 in various states under the RDSS scheme.

Around 250 million smart prepaid metres are to be installed by March 2025 under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS), launched in July 2021, at an outlay of Rs 3.3 trillion.

Around 19.79 crore smart meters have been sanctioned and 72.97 lakh devices installed in various states as on November 29, Minister of State for Power Shripad Naik said in a reply to Rajya Sabha.

As per the data shared by the minister, smart meter installations were 'nil' in states like Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Rajasthan and Punjab against the sanctioned number of devices in these states at 3 crore, 5.47 lakh, 1.42 crore and 87.84 lakh, respectively.

Other states with nil installations are Nagaland (against 3.17 lakh sanctioned), Meghalaya (4.60 lakh sanctioned), Mizoram (2.89 lakh), Jharkhand (13.41 lakh), Kerala (1.32 crore) Arunachal Pradesh (2.87 lakh) and Goa (7.41 lakh).

The data also showed nil installations in Andaman & Nicobar and Puducherry as on November 29 as against 83,573 and 4.03 lakh smart meters sanctioned for the two Union Territories, respectively.

As on November 29, the highest number of 22.89 lakh smart meters were installed in Assam against 63.64 lakh sanctioned, followed by Bihar where 19.39 lakh devices were installations against 23.50 lakh sanctioned. While Madhya Pradesh got 10.13 lakh meters installed against 1.29 crore sanctioned, Uttar Pradesh saw 3.79 lakh installations against 2.69 crore sanctioned.

Uttarakhand reported the device installation in single digit at just 7 against a total of 15.87 lakh smart meters sanctioned.

The RDSS was launched to improve the operational efficiencies and financial sustainability of distribution utilities i.e. discoms/power departments so as to provide quality and reliable supply of power.