The Smart Meter Rollout and What It Changes
India's Smart Meter National Programme (SMNP) is deploying 250 million advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) meters by the end of 2026 — one of the largest metering infrastructure programmes in the world. These meters support 15-minute interval data reporting and, crucially, time-of-use tariff structures. For EV charging operators, the implications are significant: for the first time, the actual cost of electricity will vary by time of day, creating both a risk and an opportunity.
The risk: an operator with unmanaged chargers in a building with AMI metering may face peak-period energy costs of ₹12–18/kWh when most vehicles plug in after 6 pm. The opportunity: an operator with a smart energy management system that shifts sessions to the 10 pm–6 am window can procure energy at ₹3.5–5/kWh — a cost reduction of 50–65% on the energy component, which typically represents 60–70% of total operating cost.
How Tariff Integration Works in Practice
Effective tariff integration requires the energy management system to receive the tariff schedule from the DISCOM's AMI head-end (via a standard protocol such as IEC 62056-21 DLMS/COSEM), parse upcoming high and low-price windows, and construct a charging schedule that fills each connected vehicle to its required departure state of charge while minimising energy cost. The key variables the EMS must balance are:
- Vehicle departure time and required SoC (entered by the driver or inferred from historical patterns)
- Current and forecast grid tariff by 15-minute interval
- BESS state of charge and available dispatch capacity
- Solar generation forecast for the next 12–24 hours
- Sanctioned load limit to avoid demand charge overage
Industry modelling of smart-scheduled EV charging versus unmanaged charging — using real DISCOM ToU tariff structures from Karnataka and Maharashtra — suggests energy cost reductions of 30–45% are achievable for depot operators with predictable overnight dwell times. For public charging hubs with less predictable session timing, the benefit is lower but still material at 15–25%.
EVBooth's EMS Architecture for Tariff Optimisation
EVBooth's EMS platform is designed to ingest real-time tariff signals and translate them into OCPP 2.0.1 Smart Charging composite schedules for each charger. We are actively building integrations with BESCOM and MSEDCL smart meter platforms. For operators deploying EVBooth infrastructure today, this capability will be available as a software update — the hardware is already compliant. The operators who connect their energy management to tariff signals early will have a measurable cost advantage that compounds as tariff differentials widen.