Bharti Airtel has announced that it has won a cellular internet of things (IoT) solution mandate with Tata Power Western Odisha Distribution Limited (TPWODL), a joint venture between the government of Odisha and Tata Power. The mandate will see Airtel power 200,000 smart meters with IoT solutions, of which 70,000 will be delivered in the first phase.
The connectivity mandate will be augmented with Airtel’s proprietary IoT platform, “Airtel IoT Hub” which will help the utility track and monitor these smart meters with advanced analytics while maintaining extremely high reliability augmented with telco grade security. Smart metering is one of the most rapidly advancing use case for cellular IoT in India with several power distribution companies looking forward to invest in this space to prevent revenue leakage.
Smart metering is also one of the fastest growing service lines within the IoT business portfolio for Airtel. The company is working with multiple state utilities in Punjab, Meghalaya, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar. The government of India has a big ambitious vision of replacing 300 million conventional meters with smart meters in the next five years as part of the advanced metering iInfrastructure (AMI) initiative. Airtel IoT aims to play a pivotal role in enabling this vision of government with its unique capabilities. Power sector digitisation aided by government of India’s push to usher in transparency and consumer friendly measures in this sector will see innovation such as smart metre become commonplace.
Commenting on the partnership, Gajanan Kale, chief executive officer, TPWODL said, “We want to create a customer focussed, technology savvy and future ready distribution company that’s sustainable. We believe that technology can provide us a lot of answers as we step out to create such a company. We are looking forward to deploying smart meters for billing in partnership with Airtel and making best use of their IoT technology to deliver reliable and customer friendly services.”
Meanwhile Siddharth Talawadekar, business head, IoT at Airtel said, “Airtel is delighted to partner with TPWODL in their attempt to bring best in class technology to consumers across the state. As India’s electricity sector embraces changes ushered in by new reforms, we look forward to set an example demonstrating how technology can enable efficient service delivery solutions for companies that are customer friendly. With capabilities of remote network feasibility, advanced diagnostics and a future-ready IoT platform with readily available application program interface (API)s for seamless integration, we are confident to serve our customers well in this space.”
Airtel IoT is one of the fastest growing businesses for Airtel Business. The company counts several leading Indian companies across domains such as electric vehicles, automotive, utilities, logistics and fin-tech as its clients.
