India plans to change all electricity meters to prepaid smart meters by 2022

The strategy is a piece of the government’s electricity distribution plan arranged by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), India's apex power sector arranging body, and comes when the new government is attempting to set up its efforts to supply 24x7 power to all.

As per the Ministry of Power, "The draft plan is the first ever plan at Distribution level which has been set up by CEA, under the direction of the ministry of power. Till now, the central government has been preparing Perspectives Plans for Generation and Transmission Sectors under the aegis of the National Electricity Plan (NEP). The Distribution plan keeps the necessities of buyers at the focal point of its center,"  

This comes in the backdrop of the ongoing crisis in discoms because of poor budgetary health, which has led to delayed payment to generation utilities.
The power segment is reeling under bad loans worth about Rs. 1 trillion, with around 66 gigawatts (GW) confronting different degrees of financial pressure.

The government accepts that the arrangement will build distribution substation capacity by 38 per cent. by 2022. During the audit of the plan, Minister for Power Mr Raj Kumar Singh coordinated a core group of Ministry authorities to "study the power sector 'reforms 2.0', which would be integrated with Distribution Perspective Plan before it is released."

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.