Are Smart Meters Really Making Bills Soar?
19 Sept 2025 6:40 AM IST
Description: Electricity theft is a huge issue in India. To curtail losses, and to update the country’s infrastructure, the Indian government launched Smart Meter National Programme (SMNP) in 2017. Its goal was to replace 25 crore conventional meters with smart meters by March 31, 2026.
But, by mid-July, power entities had installed only 2.41 crore smart meter units, according to government data. That’s just 10% of India’s 25-crore-meter target for 2026.
A recent survey found that low consumer awareness is one of the primary hurdles to smart meter installation. Some consumers worry they’ll see higher bills after getting a smart meter installed. In Gujarat, people even vandalized and set fire to electricity department buildings in protest of smart meters.
So, why are consumers upset? What do experts say? To learn more, check out the latest episode of The Signal Daily.
The Core produces The Signal Daily. Follow us wherever you get your favourite podcasts. To check out the rest of our work, go to www.thecore.in
NOTE: A machine transcribed this episode. A human has looked at this text but there might still be errors. Please refer to the audio above, if you need to clarify something. If you want to give us feedback, please write to us at [email protected].
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TRANSCRIPT
Kudrat (Host): Ashish is an insurance surveyor living in Mumbai. He recently bought a flat in a redeveloped building. While he still hasn’t moved in yet, there is construction and repair work underway in his flat. His new place also has a smart meter rather than a regular one.
He glanced at his mailbox recently, expecting his usual stack of letters. There it was, his new flat’s first electricity bill.
Ashish: So there were only lights and some work going on, carpentry work and other stuff. When I received the first bill, what I received was more than 8,000 rupees. So that was a shocker to me. And the second bill, now 10,000 rupees. So this is the kind of situation that the common person is facing.
Kudrat (Host): Ashish soon approached a social activist called Kamlakar Shenoy. Shenoy’s team told The Signal Daily that they’re in touch with several such consumers, who complain that after their local electricity auth2orities switched their previous meter for a smart one, they’re seeing much higher bills. Smart meters, btw, are digital devices that measure and record electricity usage in real time, unlike traditional analog meters – more on this later.
Kudrat (Host): My name is Kudrat Wadhwa and you’re listening to The Signal Daily. We don’t do hot takes. Instead, we bring you deep dives into the how and why of consumer trends.
In this episode, we’ll learn about India’s smart meter mission. Why are some consumers unhappy about these new meters?
Kudrat (Host): As a country progresses, it needs to update its infrastructure. To that end, in 2019, the Indian government launched the Smart Meter National Programme (SMNP). Its goal was to replace 25 crore conventional meters with smart meters by March 31, 2026. The biggest difference between traditional analog meters and smart ones is that the latter send data directly to state discoms or distribution companies. This means that a human doesn’t have to come and report your meter reading.
The government’s rationale goes like this – smart meters will help curtail losses and prevent electricity theft. Losses are a serious issue in India – In FY 23-24, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation found that India’s power sector lost 17.08% of electricity in the transmission and distribution phases.
Another pro to smart meters is that consumers can track their electricity usage themselves,, through an app: each state has one of their own.
Kudrat (Host): All of this sounds like a panacea. But, by mid-July, power entities had installed only 2.41 crore smart meter units, according to government data. That’s just 10% of India’s 25-crore-meter target for 2026. On 16th July, the Ministry of Power extended the smart meter deadline by two years, to March 2028.
Low consumer awareness, along with outdated utility infrastructure and unreliable connectivity are the primary hurdles to smart metering, according to an August 2025 survey by CII, or the Confederation of Indian Industries.
Kudrat (Host): Several consumers across the country don’t trust smart meters. Some, like Ashish, say it’s because they’re seeing higher bills. Others say that the electricity department is making these changes without involving them adequately.
In Vadodra in Gujarat, residents even travelled to the MGVCL office – that’s the entity that manages electricity in the city. They demanded that the government remove newly installed smart meters and reinstall older ones. In Akota and Fatehgunj, residents vandalised and set fire to an MGCVL office in protest of smart meters.
Kudrat (Host): The Signal Daily spoke to Dr. GR Vora, a social activist living in Mumbai about this.
Dr. Vora: See, they come, came to my building.
Fortunately our Watchmen asked them, what are you doing? So they of course said that, okay, we are replacing and there'll be no charges for you. And we are replacing it as we are doing in all other areas. So of course, he immediately got in touch with the secretary and strike secretary, and the managing committee strongly opposed it.
Okay. Because they didn't have any background about it. And of course they heard the news about, uh, you know, other, uh, meters being replaced in the Mumbai side, you know, the city side without their consent and the over billing. So immediately they put their foot down, they said, no, sir, answer our queries first.
You just can't come and, you know, replace our meters. We are not giving you consent for this. And if you do that, we'll file a complaint for theft of our, uh property.
Kudrat (Host): Dr. Vora’s building didn’t allow the BSES (that’s the entity responsible for distributing electricity in Mumbai) to install smart meters, but he says he knows of several people who couldn’t stop that. And they feel…
Dr. Vora: Very angry. That's the word. Very angry. Why mistake was that maybe they didn't lock the cabin. All right. Or even if they did, the watchman opened it for them for the BS and they think that, oh, these are the government authority we need to open up. So that's one cheating. And second thing is, despite after changing over billing, that's another, uh, you know, double whammy.
So why. So they are very angry with it. One thing is you are without my consent, you have replaced it, and you are give, not giving me something good. You are giving me something bad worst. So why, why do I pay and why?
Kudrat (Host): You get the point. Consumers are upset. But, experts say that these loud voices of anger do not represent most people.
Dhruvak: there have been cases where, uh, there are genuine cases, uh, but also these tend to take sort of a disproportionate limelight in the social media space, right?
Kudrat (Host): That was Dhruvak Agarwal. Dhruvak is a Program Lead at the CEEW or the Council of Energy, Environment and Water. CEEW is a think tank that has conducted several studies on the smart meter rollout.
Dhruvak: we've seen that when you look at sort of a larger base of consumers that's sort of more structured.
Um, that level of mistrust or dissatisfaction doesn't really show up, right. Um, we did this exercise in 2022. It was still early days of deployment, but we spoke to about, this was an in-person survey that we did, about 2,700 consumers who were smart, metered, and who had been smart metered for, uh, more than six months by that time.
Uh, and 60% of them said that, you know, they were happy and more than 60% said that they would actually recommend it to, uh, their friends and family and, uh, relatives. So, um, so the sense that that gives us is that, you know, um, these instances sort of pop up from time to time and they get a lot of limelight, but that's not the general experience of consumers.
And, um, you know, if, if it were the case then, you know, we wouldn't, wouldn't have reached where we have in terms of installation.
Kudrat (Host): For the most part, people are happy with smart meters, according to Dhruvak. There are many benefits to them – consumers can track their electricity usage on their state’s app. Smart meters are better for state discoms, meaning electricity distribution companies, because they can track where they might be losing electricity electronically.
That’s not to say that the people who did see their electricity bills shoot up are making it up.
Dhruvak said that CEEW has noticed that there have been instances of manual error while officials installed meters.
Dhruvak: So again, now this part of the process is manual, right? Uh, this process of sort of taking the old reading and putting it in the new reading. So there have been, you know, isolated cases of where this has gone wrong. Uh. And, uh, so, you know, maybe one less zero, maybe one extra zero. And that's, uh, that's the base reading that, uh, any smart metering system will then take to start generating bills from there on.
Kudrat (Host): There’s manual error in installing these meters, which could contribute to incorrect readings and inflated bills. Another factor could be catch-up billing – it’s possible that older meters were faulty and were underestimating electricity usage.
Another factor could be the time-of-day tariff. Some discoms are charging consumers lower rates for electricity they consume during say, 9 am to 5 pm, as that’s when discoms can provide solar energy to them. But after that, they charge higher prices. Right now, not all consumers know about technicalities like this one.
Dhruvak said that states are working out these issues in real time and are also figuring out how to better communicate this to consumers. CEEW is actively working with state governments to help make their apps more accessible to consumers.
Kudrat (Host): The Signal Daily also spoke to another expert, Dr. Anukram Mishra. He has worked in the power sector for over four decades and now works as an independent advisor. He said that as any new technology comes out, there’s resistance among people to adopt it.
Dr. Anukram Mishra: So whenever something new comes, there's always a resistance, and public is very mature so they understand, uh, whether they are getting a fair and just bill or there's some discrepancy.
So it might have happened in some odd cases that, uh, the meeting, uh, the meter had some problem. Or something which would've resulted, uh, a load, probably an air conditioner, which has gone bad. So if the, you know, gas reduces, the consumption increases, so something would've happened, uh, or the elect, uh, some high, uh, energy guzzling load would've been left, uh, on for some time.
So there can be many such things. But, you know, these are the things that type of negative things we all like to, you know, pick up. And, uh, make our own story.
So it happened, uh, in Rajasthan also that, uh, someone said My bill is, uh, four times that of the usual bill I used to get. So what, uh, the authorities, uh, in Rajasthan have decided that when they are putting a smart meter, they are not removing the old meters.
So one or two months you can compare. Once you're satisfied with that, uh, the old meter is removed. So this is one good initiative they have taken.
Kudrat (Host): Smart meters are not going away. In fact, India isn’t the first country to install them. The US, European countries, and even China have initiated similar drives.
In addition to making their own electricity data more accessible to consumers, smart meters also help state discoms track electricity usage. That’s crucial in today’s world, where data is everything. Dr. Mishra told The Signal Daily that smart meters are better from a sustainability perspective too.
India wants to build 500 gigawatts of non-fossil capacity by 2030, and go fully carbon-neutral by 2070. Smart meters are essential to those goals–renewable energy like wind and solar is intermittent, meaning authorities need electricity usage data to better provide these sources of energy.
Dhruvak: It's important to, um, not always, uh, go and, you know, as, as true for smart meeting as it is for anything else to be go and hearsay on, on, on social media. Um. It's not always the case that if, if a small glitch has happened with another consumer, it'll happen with, uh, with you two.
Inherently, there's nothing wrong with the, uh, you know, with, with the, with, with smart metering. So I think it's worth, uh, giving a shot for sure.
I think, uh, it's, it's a tech that's worth adopting. Uh, in the interest of overall efficiency. Uh, there'll be, might be initial pain points here and there.
Uh, but I think over time, if. Consumers are willing to take it up, willing to share their feedback with the DCOM staff. Um, I think overall we'll land up in a better situation in a few of us.
Kudrat (Host): With any new technology, there’s initial resistance among consumers. But, something like smart meters are not optional – countries across the world have conducted similar drives, so why should India continue archaic practices. India has one of the highest rates of electricity losses, and better tech is important to counter that problem. In fact, Dhruvak of CEEW said that consumers could potentially see lower bills once the govt installs more smart meters too, because authorities will be able to track theft better.
But, if you as a consumer are experiencing inflated bills, experts say you should reach out to your local discoms. If the discom does not resolve the issue satisfactorily, the consumer can approach the CGRF or the Consumer Grievance Redressal Forum (CGRF), which every discom is required to set up under the Electricity Act, 2003. If there’s suspicion of fraud, consumers may also write to the consumer court under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
Kudrat (Host): That's all for today. You just heard The Signal Daily. We don't do hot takes. Instead, we bring you deep dives into the how and why of consumer trends. The Core produces The Signal Daily. Follow us wherever you get your favourite podcasts.
To check out the rest of our work, go to www.thecore.in.
If you have feedback, we'd love to hear from you. Write to us at [email protected] or you can write to me at [email protected].
Thank you for listening.
