Introduction :-

The Draft Electricity Amendment Bill has defined smart grid and suggested that smart meters should be installed at each stage, for proper measurement of consumption. Under Ujjwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY), the government has targeted to install 35 million smart meters by 2019.

The government plans to make all electricity meters smart prepaid in three years (from April 1,2019) They are part of the advanced metering infrastructure solution that measures and records electricity use at different times of the day and send this information to the energy supplier. They allow two-way communication, between energy providers and consumers of electricity.

Advantages of Smart Metering :
For utilities :-

• Reduce operational costs of energy companies as fewer call-outs are needed, and the accuracy of billing is improved.
• Enable remote monitoring: utilities can monitor households or commercial establishments that do not pay their bills and can shut down their services remotely.
• Load management: Smart meters can relay information back to Distribution companies as to when the demand for power is maximum, so that suitable strategies such as time of day (TOD) tariffing can be adopted.
• Prevention of theft and pilferage: With “Smart” meters in place, a feedback can be sent back to the utility in case of theft and pilferage to reduce aggregate technical & commercial losses (currently about 20.58% according to Ministry of Power)

For consumers

• Monitoring the quality of supply: “Smart” meters can also provide customers a real time analysis on the quality of power being supplied.
• Eliminate the hassle of monthly or quarterly meter readings: In the past, to make it easy for utilities’ personnel to take readings, meters were placed outside of buildings. Smart meters can however be placed anywhere within the house.
• Closer eye on energy usage: This gives consumers better access to information and allows them to make more informed decisions on the use of electricity in their homes, leading to reduced power wastage, and long-term carbon and financial savings.
• Equitable Tariff: The insights provided by the smart meter infrastructure can be used for the creation of an even more customer-centric tariff structure.

Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses :-

• It is the difference between energy input units into the system and the units for which the payment is collected.
• It has two components: :- Technical Loss is due to flow of power in the transmission and distribution system. This should normally be in the range of 8-12% considering the Indian networks. Commercial loss is due to theft of electricity, deficiencies in metering, misuse of category on realization of revenue etc.

Impact of AT&C Losses :- 

• Saving from this loss can mitigate the impact of escalating operating costs and progressively higher quantum and costs of power purchase to meet growing power needs, resulting in lesser burden on the consumer.

Disadvantages of Smart Metering :-

• For the Electric Companies :- Short-term increase in costs: The cost in terms of personnel training and equipment development and production to transition to a new technology and new set of processes.
• Data management: Managing and storing vast quantities of the metering data collected and ensuring the security and privacy of metering data.
• Resistance by customers: Managing negative public reaction and acquiring customer acceptance of the new meters.

• For Consumers

• Data privacy issue: There's no way to protect the privacy of the personal data collected.
• Short-term cost: There is an additional fee for the installation of the new meter.

Way forward :
To ensure adoption and seamless working of smart metering, following steps need to be taken:

• Developing robust and accessible IoT platform: A key building block for a meaningful smart meter infrastructure is the IoT platform which will enable consolidation, storing, securing and analysis of the data received by the individual measuring devices.
• Ensuring widespread and high quality electric and telecom connectivity: To connect the meters to the IoT platform that they depend on for functioning, they need a robust connection that is not always available
• Open platforms for smart metering services: This will ensure that entry into such an extensive infrastructure market does not put many smaller players like regional energy providers and start-ups at a disadvantage.
• Developing a robust policy and regulatory framework: Such a roadmap will create an enabling environment for market players, utilities and consumers as well as ensure synchronization between policies at central and state level.
• Building technological capacity and expertise: currently, the smart meters manufactured in the country rely heavily on imported components. Development of domestic capacity to produce meter components can go a long way in reducing per meter costs for the country.
• Designing of effective demand side management programmes: to ensure adoption of energy efficiency measures across consumer segments is needed.