CHENNAI: Around 1.7 crore consumers including households, commercial and other low-tension (LT) categories in all major corporations in the state are set to get their electricity meters replaced with smart meters, as Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Corporation Ltd (TNPDCL) has floated tenders in seven different packages inviting service providers of advanced metering infrastructure. In Chennai region, 56.85 lakh meters will be installed.The smart meters will do away with the manual reading of power consumption at doorsteps as the meters equipped with a SIM card can generate invoices at the end of each billing cycle and send SMS to the consumer’s phone number about the dues to be paid. The smart meters are expected to bring down the discrepancies in power bills due to delayed and wrong assessments.In Chennai’s T Nagar, 1.29 lakh smart meters have already been installed as part of the smart city scheme. The smart meter can also automatically disconnect a service temporarily for default on payment.During his budget presentation in the assembly in August, finance minister N Marie Wilson announced that the entire Chennai region comprising 38.80 lakh LT services would be covered with smart meters. However, the scheme has been extended to all municipal corporations, according to TNPDCL sources. A separate tender has been floated to install 4.72 lakh smart meters in all distribution transformers to detect line loss, energy thefts and others.Chennai region has been split into two packages, and the remaining 23 corporations have been clubbed in four packages. Six corporations in Kancheepuram, Villpuram, Vellore and Tiruvannamalai districts will be part of one of the packages, while five corporations in Erode and Karur districts are part of another package. Trichy, Thanjavur, and Erode will form a package, while Madurai and Tirunelveli form another package.The very first smart meter tender was floated in August 2023 to cover all three crore electricity consumers in the state, before it was lodged in December 2024, due to poor participation of bidders and high maintenance cost quoted by them.Fresh tenders for smart meters were floated again in March 2025, and the tenders were revised again in August to cover 1.44 crore consumers, whose bimonthly consumption is above 400 units, in the first phase before it was cancelled again. TNPDCL earlier this year appointed PFC Consulting to install 6.7 lakh smart meters in all govt buildings, and the installation is set to begin shortly.While the Union govt will release 15% of the total meter cost to the service provider, the latter will install and maintain the meters for a period of 10 years for a monthly maintenance charges.“The prices of smart meters have come down drastically. In Madhya Pradesh, three-phase meters have been procured for Rs 5,400, while a single-phase meter was purchased for Rs 2,500. The monthly maintenance charges worked out to Rs 65 per month. For Tamil Nadu, we expect further slashing of prices,” said a TNPDCL official.
