Live in Gurgaon, Kanpur, Lucknow? Smart power grids, meters coming your way

While consumers will be paying a higher upfront cost for smart metering, the share in the efficiency gains could more than offset this higher spend

A van circles a residential or commercial complex and logs the exact number of units that various electrical appliances inside have consumed at any time of the day. This reading is then transmitted to a data centre where it is automatically billed and logged into a digitally accessed account.  

A distant dream for the modern urban planner? Not if some recent initiatives are anything to go by. 

Last month, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government announced that it had finalised the first tranche of a bulk tender for smart meters. Domestic players, such as Larsen & Toubro and Jay