Who is winning the smart meter race across the world?

Who leads the world when it comes to smart meter installations? 

The graphic below from IoT Analytics, shows the state of adoption in countries across the world as at the beginning of 2024. 

According to a report from Berg Insights, at the beginning of 2024 there were more than a billion smart meters installed globally. 

China still leads the world when it comes to installations after the country’s state installed almost half a billion smart meters between 2011 and 2017. 

North America is also far ahead in smart meter installation with a penetration of 80% by the end of 2023, according to Berg Insights. The company predicts that by the end of 2029, there will be 182.9 million smart meters installed in the region. 

India looks set to be the next smart meter hotspot. 

The Indian Government announced its smart meter rollout, called the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS), in July 2021 with a view to replacing 250 million conventional meters. 

The scheme represented a massive potential investment in India’s metering infrastructure, costing an estimated £28 billion over the five-year period from 2021 to 2026, with around a third of the cost coming from central government.  

The RDSS is intended to improve the quality, reliability and affordability of power supply to consumers through a financially sustainable and operationally efficient distribution sector and has a specific goal of reducing aggregate technical and commercial losses from 22% to 12 to 15% and to align the average cost of supply and the average realisable revenue to the gap between average cost of supply and average realisable revenue  which is particularly challenging in the Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra regions.  

India has offered incentives to individual Indian states and territories (7.5% of the cost of installation 450 Rupees (around £4.20) per consumer meter whichever is lower) as well as consumers (discounts on unit costs as well as small discounts on bill payments) to encourage uptake. 

Despite these incentives, uptake has been slower than expected. 

According to an industry report on the Indian smart meter market by financial advisory company Avener, the installation of just over 222 million smart meters had been agreed by early October this year, with tenders relating to 118 million of those already awarded. However, the actual installed base sits at around 14.5 million. 

An official from one energy distribution company  speaking to the Times of India in the summer said that only 15 smart meters had been installed in its region and rollout would only accelerate after “the effectiveness of the various applications offered by the smart meters and its seamless monitoring from the command centre” could be verified. 

The slow pace of running tenders to install smart meters as well as the slow deployment of applications to make use of them and the fieldwork required by installers. 

However, smart installations are expected to rocket in the next two years according to analysts ICRA. 

The company said: “The viability for the winning bidders remains largely linked with the capital cost of setting up the smart meters along with the associated infrastructure.” 

India will be interesting to watch as a large proportion of the smart meters that are planned to be installed are prepayment meters, like those installed by our sister company Utilita. 

Some are calling the introduction of prepaid smart meters in the country as “a game changer for the power sector”, helping to address issues around revenue collection, electricity theft and operational efficiency in the energy sector. Around 20% of the installed smart meter base in the country are prepayment meters. Indian consumers can look forward to being able to budget better, reduce debt and have better control of their energy usage. This is particularly important in a country like India where income inequality is at historic highs. 

However, India needs to get its rollout of prepay smart meters right. The communications infrastructure needs to work well so that the network of smart meters operates as it is intended. Indian consumers are already very comfortable with using their smartphones for financial transactions. 

With this focus on prepay, India’s energy sector also needs to make sure that the most vulnerable consumers do not get cut off from supply if the rollout does not go as smoothly as planned.  

At the same time that India is ramping up its smart meter rollout – recognising the benefits of better access to data – the rollout in the UK is slowing down with the number of installations down by 11% in the last quarter for which figures are available, and 10% the previous quarter. 

In the UK, the rollout was intended to enable the cost-effective delivery of net zero greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the country’s energy security by reducing the need for imported fossil fuels to meet peak demand. It was also intended to give customers near-real time information which they can use to manage their energy use and cut their bills to help with the cost of living. It also made the use of prepayment meters easier by allowing people to top up without leaving their homes. These are all benefits that India will enjoy too. 

Part of the slowdown in the UK is because market penetration is already relatively high but misinformation about smart meters in the media cannot be discounted. Headlines about smart meters stealing personal information, overcharging consumers or preventing consumers from changing supplier are commonplace yet they are demonstrably false. To gain the biggest benefits from the smart rollout, the UK government will need to push to get remaining traditional meters switched over and a robust infrastructure maintained to ensure that these meters remain smart – another criticism levelled at their usage. 

The chart at the top shows that the world is still at the start of the smart meter revolution. If we are to deliver on its potential benefits – achieving cost savings, net zero and better control for energy users – then countries around the world, including India and the UK need to make sure the right infrastructure and safeguards are in place. 

With Procode’s expertise in delivering the technology that underpins smart energy in the UK, we are well placed to provide our knowledge and help with the wider global expansion.