Adani Energy Solutions Limited (AESL), India’s leading private transmission and distribution company and a part of the globally diversified Adani portfolio, today said it has taken a significant step in strengthening its smart metering business by forming a 49:51 JV with UAE-based Esyasoft Holdings for implementing smart metering projects in India and other countries.  

Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Adani Transmission Step-Four Limited, AESL has acquired a 49% stake in Esyasoft Holdings Ltd.’s smart metering solutions arm; the entity has been renamed Adani Esyasoft Smart Solutions Ltd. 

The transaction deepens the relationship between Adani and Abu Dhabi’s International Holding Company (IHC), as IHC is a major shareholder in Esyasoft through its subsidiary Sirius International Holdings. 

Besides serving AESL’s current and future needs, the JV will also bid for and execute Indian and global orders. It has about 100 experts spread across India, the UAE, the U.K., and KSA, serving major Indian discoms, Scottish Gas, and UAE-based utilities like FEWA, DEWA, SEWA and ADDC. 

The products of Esyasoft, a provider of cloud and IoT-based energy management solutions, have been catering to the energy automation sector. It has a rich repository of IP (intellectual property) and has been offering solutions for smart utilities including meter data management system, headend system, peak load management, energy audit, metering, billing and collection, mobility solutions, big data analytics in load forecasting, theft analysis, consumer behavior analysis, and GIS.  

“AESL is very happy to partner with Esyasoft to create a niche joint venture to provide critical and integrated solutions for the seamless national rollout of our smart metering business. Besides giving us a strong execution edge locally, the JV will open up new vistas in international geographies where the smart metering concept is gaining traction and will aggressively pursue such opportunities,” said Kandarp Patel, CEO, AESL.  

“We are happy to join hands with Adani Energy Solutions to offer our cutting-edge smart metering solutions for the Indian and global markets. Currently, Esyasoft is one of the leading smart metering platform and solutions providers globally, with 25+ million consumer end points serving in 10+ countries. With this partnership, we will add an additional 30 million end points. Additionally, Esyasoft also has solutions for renewable energy, energy efficiency, EV charging, analytics & AI tool, etc., which we are confident of offering to other Adani group companies," said Ajay Bhatia, Group CEO, Sirius International Holding, Esyasoft’s major shareholder.

AESL has an order book of about 2 crore smart meters from discoms like BEST Mumbai (10.8 lakh), Maharashtra discom (1.15 crore), Uttarakhand (6.5 lakh), Andhra Pradesh (41.2 lakh), Bihar (28.4 lakh) and Assam (7.8 lakh) and more are likely to get added. The company’s own distribution arm Adani Electricity Mumbai has already installed a majority of its 7 lakh smart meters planned in phase 1.  

India’s smart metering business market size is expected to cater to about 25 crore premises, of which tenders for 8 crore meters are yet to be floated, indicating enough growth opportunity in the future.