Union power minister Manohar Lal chaired The Regional Conference for the Eastern Region States/ UTs held in Patna, Bihar on June 24, 2025.
Here are key takeaways from the minister’s address:
- India’s power system has evolved into a unified national grid, fulfilling the vision of “One Nation-One Grid”. The country successfully met peak power demand of 250 GW in May 2024 and 242 GW thus far in the current fiscal year, FY26. Later this year, peak demand is expected to reach nearly 270 GW.
- States should also ensure a balanced and diversified power generation mix. This should include the addition of nuclear generation capacity, with an aim to establish at least one nuclear power project in each state. India’s nuclear power generation capacity is projected to reach 100 GW by 2047.
- States should work towards resolving the issues faced, including RoW-related challenges, in development of intrastate transmission projects. States should explore diverse options for financing, including listing of transmission utilities and funding from multilateral institutions.
- States need to engage with the Electricity Regulatory Commissions for ensuring cost-reflective tariffs and timely issuance of tariff and true-up orders. The minister emphasized that that distribution utilities should further strive to improve efficiency through expediting infrastructure and smart metering works under RDSS. Smart meters have huge potential in transforming the way consumers interact with Utilities using the data analytics based on AI/ML tools.
- States were urged to expedite the process of installation of smart meters. The minister stressed that prepaid smart meters is a way to ensure timely release of Government department dues. He asked States to saturate installation of prepaid smart meters in all Government establishments including Government colonies by August 2025 and to complete installation of smart meters for Commercial and Industrial consumers and high load consumers by November 2025.
Intrastate grids
In the context of power transmission, Pankaj Agarwal, Secretary, Ministry of Power, said that it is also imperative to make necessary arrangements for development of interstate and intrastate transmission capacities through various available financing models including tariff-based competitive bidding (TBCB), regulated tariff mechanism (RTM), leveraging support for infrastructure provided under Budget 2025, or through monetization of existing assets.
Also read: Power minister inaugurates grid upgrade projects in UT of Jammu & Kashmir
Featured photograph sourced from Press Information Bureau (PIB).