Ember’s response to India’s draft National Electricity Policy- 2026

Ember's response to India's draft National Electricity Policy 2026 argues for a shift from sequential to co-optimised generation and transmission planning to resolve bottlenecks and stranded assets. The brief recommends deploying grid-enhancing technologies to manage the rise of inverter-based resources, unbundling state transmission utilities to increase private sector participation, and reforming DISCOM procurement to avoid over-reliance on long-term coal contracts. It also calls for a robust data-sharing and cybersecurity framework to manage the increasing volume of electricity data from distributed energy resources.

• India's current sequential approach to transmission planning, where transmission follows generation siting, has led to systemic coordination challenges, including an estimated 50 GW of stranded assets as of October 2025 and a renewable energy (RE) pipeline in the Inter-State Transmission System (ISTS) queue extending to 2032.
• To address grid instability caused by the increasing share of inverter-based resources and reduced system inertia, India should implement a least-cost planning approach for grid-enhancing technologies, such as synchronous condensers and grid-forming inverters, based on forward-looking technical studies.
• DISCOMs often over-procure capacity to ensure reliability, which can lead to long-term financial liabilities and limited renewable penetration when new coal-based assets are added; procurement strategies should instead focus on the least-cost pathway using power exchanges and short-term markets.
• The growth of distributed RE and smart metering necessitates a robust data-governance framework to manage privacy and cybersecurity, with a priority on storing critical grid and consumer data within India's borders.

APA

Das, D. (2026). Ember’s response to India’s draft National Electricity Policy- 2026. Ember. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2026/02/Embers-response-to-Indias-draft-National-Electricity-Policy-2026.pdf

Chicago

Das, Duttatreya. Ember’s response to India’s draft National Electricity Policy- 2026. Ember, 2026. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2026/02/Embers-response-to-Indias-draft-National-Electricity-Policy-2026.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Das |first1=Duttatreya |title=Ember’s response to India’s draft National Electricity Policy- 2026 |publisher=Ember |date=16 February 2026 |url=https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2026/02/Embers-response-to-Indias-draft-National-Electricity-Policy-2026.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{das2026embers, author = {Das, Duttatreya}, title = {{Ember’s response to India’s draft National Electricity Policy- 2026}}, institution = {Ember}, year = {2026}, month = feb, url = {https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2026/02/Embers-response-to-Indias-draft-National-Electricity-Policy-2026.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }