India stands at a pivotal moment in its energy transition. With rising demand and rapid urbanization, the power sector is transforming, and smart metering has emerged as a key enabler, delivering real-time visibility, efficient grid management, reduced losses, improved revenue assurance, and greater consumer empowerment.

Through initiatives such as the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) and the NationalSmart Grid Mission (NSGM), the Government of India has accelerated nationwide AMI deployment, with daily installations rising from 15,000 to over 1.12 lakh. States such as Bihar, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh are leading this progress.

Under RDSS, India targets the installation of 250 million smart meters by March 2028, covering consumers, distribution transformers, and feeders to strengthen billing efficiency, reduce losses, and enhance grid management.

The first Smart Metering Summit in 2021 highlighted the potential of smart grids, meters, and digital solutions in revolutionizing power distribution. It emphasized the need for active stakeholder participation in adopting these technologies. Building on this, the fourth Edition Smart Meter Summit July in 2026 delved deeper into the progress made and chart a path forward for achieving India’s target of 250 million smart meters by 2025.

The Fourth Edition Smart Metering Summit themed “Deploying Smart Meters with ”Advance Technologies” in 2026 provided an important platform for discussions on issues in the smart metering landscape. REC & RECPDCL & PFC also have core groups on smart metering and transmission. The Core Group on Smart Metering has identified operational challenges, like frequent testing, system integration delays, and supply-demand inconsistencies in the smart metering industry. The group during its meetings has underscored the need for skill development, improving infrastructure and connectivity, prioritizing data use cases for sustainability and EV integration, and advocating for smart meters to be classified as infrastructure to unlock better financing options. Importance of data privacy, cyber security, and compliance with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act were also highlighted.

AAYERA successfully concluded the Fourth Edition of the SMS - Smart Meter Summit in 24th and 25th July 2026. Themed “Deploying Smart Meters with Advance Technologies”, it brought together policymakers, regulators, utilities, AMISPs, technology leaders, investors, and international experts for a full day of high-impact discussions. The outcomes were clear: India has the manufacturing capacity, financing support, and technological capability to scale. What is now required is stronger collaboration, faster implementation, data-driven execution, and consumer-centric adoption. In this regard, the Government of India has taken decisive action on data security and data privacy, reinforcing trust and enabling large-scale deployment.

Objective

Following the successful Fourth Edition, AAYERA is organizing the 5th Edition of the Smart Meter Summit on 29th & 30 th September 2026 at THE SURYAA HOTEL, New Delhi. With the theme “Enabling a Future-Ready Digital Distribution Framework for Smart Utilities,” the conference will focus on smarter grids, data-driven operations, and future-ready power distribution, with a clear agenda to strengthen the Indian market and accelerate digitalisation across the power sector.

This year’s conference aims to shift the narrative from deployment to impact and will focus on:

• AI/ML in Smart Metering
• From Meters to Cloud – AI-Enabled Connectivity & Development
• End-to-End IT Stack for Indian Discoms
• Digital Twins: Simulating the Future with Smart Meter Intelligence
• Scaling AMI rapidly and responsibly through robust execution frameworks and field tested models.
• Unlocking the power of smart meter data for analytics, forecasting, demand side management, outage reduction, and power purchase optimization.
• Advancing cyber security and DPDP compliance as digitalization deepens across utilities.
• Strengthening interoperability and standardization to build a truly multivendor, scalable national ecosystem.
• Expanding smart metering across electricity, gas, and water to create integrated, future ready urban infrastructure.
• Transforming consumer engagement to build trust, increase acceptance, and make prepaid/postpaid transitions seamless.
• Attracting private investment through secure, predictable financial and contractual models.

Key Features of the 2026 Smart Metering Summit

• International & State Level Participation
• B2B and B2G meetings to foster collaborations
• Technical Sessions for in-depth discussions on key topics
• Delegates: 500+ participants from industry, government, and academia
• Business and Policy Focus: Driving discussions on market trends and regulatory frameworks
• Case Studies: Showcasing state and international best practices in smart metering
• AMISP & AI ML Technologies Companies

In the recent past, to improve the operational efficiency of the Distribution Companies and to provide better cost effective services to consumers, Power Distribution Sector worldwide is rapidly adopting the Smart Metering Technology. This technology is futuristic and helps Distribution Companies in effective distribution operations as well as help utilities in managing dynamic and disruptive changes happening in the grids due to solar energy infusion, Home Automation, Electric Vehicles, Storage, etc. In India, itself, there are around 360 million consumers and smart metering adoption is in initial stage. Similarly, for any Smart Cities, Smart Energy is a prerequisite for which Smart Metering is the core enabler.

The objective of SMS is to provide a platform for key stakeholders to discuss the metering requirements and opportunities in India. The conference will also highlight the key challenges faced and enable knowledge sharing on various aspects of smart metering including communication systems, emerging technologies, design and testing, and data acquisition and management. The conference will also showcase the best practices in the metering space.

Smart Metering Summit intends to invite experienced solution providers with proven technologies to participate at this exclusive forum and showcase their technology/services to collaborate with state or private energy distribution companies in implementing Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) at competitive prices and with proven technology.