IntelliSmart, jointly owned by National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) and Energy Efficiency Services (EESL), is among the top three contenders in India’s smart metering segment, with 22 million meters across Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Assam. The deal comprises acquiring 100% of the equity share capital of IntelliSmart and redemption of optionally convertible debentures (OCDs) of IntelliSmart held by NIIF. NIIF has a 51% stake in IntelliSmart, while EESL owns the remaining 49%. The proposed acquisition will strengthen AESL’s position as India’s largest smart metering platform, with more than 47 million smart meters, according to the company.
India’s power distribution sector has historically remained the weakest link in the electricity value chain. While the country expanded generation and transmission capacity significantly over the past decade, discoms continued to face high aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses, weak billing systems, delayed collections, and persistent financial stress.
In response to these structural inefficiencies, India is replacing hundreds of millions of traditional meters with smart meters to improve billing accuracy, strengthen demand forecasting, reduce AT&C losses, enhance grid planning, and operational efficiency. Smart meters also enable utilities to access granular, real-time electricity consumption data, facilitating better network management.
The scale of deployment of smart meters has accelerated sharply in recent years. Smart meter installations increased from negligible pilot deployments during FY14-FY16 to nearly 50 million meters by FY26.
In its distribution business, AESL serves more than 13 million consumers in metropolitan Mumbai and the industrial hub of Mundra SEZ. The company is ramping up its smart metering business and is on course to become India’s leading smart metering integrator with an order book of over 24.6 million meters, it said. “Acquisition of IntelliSmart enhances our scale and execution capabilities, enabling us to support India’s power distribution modernisation through technology-led solutions,” said Kandarp Patel, CEO, Adani Energy.
“IntelliSmart’s evolution into one of the country’s leading smart metering platforms reflects NIIF’s ability to build and scale infrastructure businesses in emerging sectors of national importance,” said Vinod Giri, managing partner, NIIF.Adani Group entity is among four bidders shortlisted for IntelliSmart, and subsequently commenced due diligence, ET reported on May 25. ET was the first to report in April that half a dozen potential buyers including Adani Energy Solutions submitted non-binding bids to acquire IntelliSmart.
The sale of IntelliSmart tracks the government’s revamped distribution sector scheme, under which India aims to replace 250 million conventional electricity meters with smart meters as part of efforts to modernise the power distribution ecosystem. The programme is backed by an estimated ₹1.35 lakh crore, with implementation expected to continue through 2035.
Under the scheme, smart metering works have been sanctioned for 45 distribution utilities in 28 states and union territories. Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas acted as legal advisor to AESL for this transaction, and Talwar Thakore & Associates acted as legal advisors to the sellers, while Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India acted as exclusive transaction advisors to the sellers.