Smart grid and smart meter technology

The grid's nervous system, from the substation to the meter at home

Every home has an electricity meter. In many Indian homes, the old meter is being replaced by a smart meter, which sends its readings to the electricity company automatically. That meter is the last point of a very large system: the grid. The grid is often called the largest machine ever built.

How the grid works. Electricity travels from the power plant to the home in three stages:

Generation: power plants make the electricity. (More on them in Market Segment 40.1, Renewable energy and battery storage.)

Transmission: high-voltage lines carry it over long distances. High voltage loses less power on the way.

Distribution: at a substation, transformers lower the voltage. Local lines then carry the power to homes, shops and factories.

How the grid works: electricity goes from generation through high-voltage transmission to a substation, where transformers lower the voltage, then through local distribution lines to the smart meter at home, with the power put in always equal to the power taken out.

The grid has one hard rule. The power put in must equal the power taken out, every second. If the two drift apart, equipment trips and the lights go out. So the grid has to be watched and controlled all the time. That is its nervous system: sensors, meters and control software.

Who buys. The buyers are utilities, the companies that run the grid and sell electricity. In India, the utilities that supply homes are called distribution companies, or discoms. Most are owned by state governments, and they buy through tenders.

Smart meters. A smart meter records how much power a home uses and sends the readings over a network. Nobody has to visit to read it. It can also work as a prepaid meter, which is recharged like a mobile phone. India is installing a quarter of a billion smart meters under its national programme. It is one of the largest roll-outs in the world. Discoms want them because they lose a lot of money to theft and to unpaid bills.

The grid's edge. Power used to flow one way, from large plants to homes. Now millions of small devices sit at the edge of the grid: rooftop solar panels, batteries and electric-vehicle chargers. Some of them send power back. The grid must now coordinate all of them. (More on the home's equipment in Market Segment 40.3, Home energy management and community solar. More on chargers in Market Segment 38.8, EV charging networks and battery swapping, in Industry Vertical 38, Automotive and mobility.)

The grid's edge: power used to flow one way, from large plants to homes; now rooftop solar panels, batteries and electric-vehicle chargers sit at the edge of the grid, and some of them send power back.

Every company named here has posted software engineering jobs in India. Famous companies that don't actively hire software engineers in India are left out.

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Grid equipment, smart meters and software for utilities

Grid equipment, smart meters and software for utilities

Grid equipment and control

Hitachi Energy

with engineers in Bengaluru and Chennai, makes transformers, high-voltage lines and the software that controls grids. It does much of its engineering in India. Hitachi Energy has the most job postings in this Market Segment.

Ayr Energy

with engineers in Hyderabad, makes transformers and circuit breakers. A circuit breaker cuts off the power when there is a fault.

Smart meters

Itron Inc.

with engineers in Bengaluru, and Landis+Gyr, with engineers in Delhi, make smart meters. They also make the networks and software that collect the readings.

GridCrest by Kaynes

with engineers in Kolkata, is the smart-meter business of Kaynes Technology, the Indian electronics maker. It makes meters for India's roll-out.

Kimbal

with engineers in Delhi, also makes meters for India's roll-out.

Software for utilities

AiDASH

founded by Indian entrepreneurs, with engineers in Bengaluru, uses satellite images and AI. It shows utilities which trees threaten their power lines. A tree that falls on a line can cause a power cut or a fire.

Bidgely

with engineers in Bengaluru, reads a home's smart-meter data and works out which appliances are running. Utilities use this to show customers where their power goes.

Pravah

with engineers in Delhi, sells grid-intelligence software to utilities.

Managing the grid's edge. Two ideas matter here. Demand response means asking customers to use less power for a short time when the grid is under strain, usually for a payment. A virtual power plant is software that controls thousands of home batteries, water heaters and chargers together. To the grid, they act like one power plant.

Uplight

with engineers in Pune, and Stem Inc., with engineers in Delhi, run demand response and virtual power plants. They turn thousands of homes and batteries into a resource the grid can call on.

The virtual power plant.

A grid was once balanced by starting and stopping power stations. It can now be balanced by adjusting a million water heaters, batteries and chargers a little. That is a virtual power plant, run by software. The smart meters India is installing are the first step. The next step is AI models that forecast what the grid's edge will do, and dispatch it.

That is the grid and its software: equipment that carries the power, meters that measure it, and software that keeps supply and demand in balance. India's smart-meter roll-out makes it a large market at home as well as a place where the software is built.

Who they hire

Who these companies hire, and for what, is on What energy and climate tech companies hire for.

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