Seminar provided an urgent and timely platform to examine regulatory resilience, technology-driven solutions, and operational strategies for India’s energy ecosystem.

New Delhi: The Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Regulatory Affairs in Power Sector — a landmark joint initiative of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), Grid Controller of India (Grid India), and IIT Delhi — successfully concluded a one-day National Seminar titled “Energy Security through System Operation and Regulatory Lens and Way Forward,” at IIT Delhi recently.

The seminar convened senior policymakers, regulators, technical experts, utilities, and academic leaders to deliberate on pathways to strengthen India’s energy security.

Set against the backdrop of rising global energy market volatility — including supply disruptions triggered by the Gulf conflict, with India importing over 85% of its crude requirements — the seminar provided an urgent and timely platform to examine regulatory resilience, technology-driven solutions, and operational strategies for India’s energy ecosystem.

Shri V. Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Advisor, Govt of India delivered the keynote address on “Energy Security, Transition and the Costs of Wishful Thinking.” He cautioned against substituting one form of geopolitical dependence for another, noting that highly concentrated clean energy supply chains pose strategic risks comparable to fossil fuel import dependence. The CEA underscored that India’s energy transition must be fiscally prudent, sequenced appropriately, and anchored in domestic and allied supply chains for critical minerals and technology.

Shri Jishnu Barua, Chairperson, CERC, emphasized that India is navigating increasingly unpredictable global times. With 85% of crude oil imported and 45% of those imports passing through the geopolitically vulnerable Strait of Hormuz, India's energy security remains deeply sourced from geographically diverse region. He stressed that India's strategic advantage lies not only in self-sufficiency but also in optionality, diversifying suppliers, building strategic reserves, reducing oil intensity in transport, and ensuring the security of supply chain resilience for critical minerals. He concluded by urging regulators and stakeholders to develop forward-looking, adaptive regulatory frameworks capable of balancing the trilemma of energy security, sustainability, and affordability.

Shri Santosh Kumar Sarangi, Secretary, MNRE, while celebrating India's impressive RE capacity of 537 GW, emphasised that the real challenge now lies in intelligent grid integration rather than just increasing capacity. India’s variable RE accounts for only 15% of total generation, far behind Germany’s 50% and Australia’s 35%, necessitating India to adopt similar market-based mechanisms and grid modernization strategies. He also stressed the need for regulatory reforms, including shorter 12–15-year PPAs to replace the outdated 25-year model, stronger real-time markets, and instruments like contracts for difference. He welcomed CERC’s staff paper on reducing the gate closure time. He informed that MNRE is working with the Ministry of Finance to secure budgetary support to upgrade the transmission network and suggested that storage should be considered a core asset.

Panel 1- Energy Security, Sustainability & Affordability

The panel consisted of the Chairperson of CEA, Chairperson of UPERC, DG of AIDA, CMD of NTPC Ltd, a former ambassador, and was moderated by the Secretary of CERC – Mr. Harpreet Singh Pruthi. The session discussed the West Asia crisis, intensified by energy security concerns, gas supply disruptions that are straining power generation and finances, and emphasised the need to balance energy security, sustainability, and affordability. The discussion focused on the importance of pumped storage hydro as a critical complement to imported Battery Energy Storage Systems, accelerating Electrification of Transport, and cooking, implementing Time-of-Day tariffs, and stressing the role of nuclear power as effective steps to reduce dependence on imported fuel. Replacement of imported energy sources was emphasised, such as oil could be replaced with ethanol; gas with coal gasification; imported coal with domestic coal expansion and nuclear power etc.

Panel 2- Regulatory and Technology Innovation

The panel included Member (Finance), CERC; CEO of BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd; Senior Fellow, CSEP (joining online), moderated by Chief (RA), CERC – Dr. S K Chatterjee. The session focused on regulatory and technological innovation, considering India's shift from current base load systems to those with intermittent renewable energy sources and their flexibility, including PSP, CSP, and DER, along with the need for AI and ML intervention and technology adoption. Additionally, the panel emphasised the urgency of modernising India’s regulatory framework to address emerging clean energy technologies and geopolitical supply disruptions.

Panel 3 - System Operation & Grid Reliability

The concluding panel included CMD, Grid India, Member (Technical) CERC and CMD, Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), and moderated by Prof. Abhijit Abhyankar, Coordinator, CoE for Regulatory Affairs in Power Sector, IIT Delhi. Topics included ancillary services markets, inertia management, congestion management, SLDC-RLDC-NLDC coordination, and cross-border electricity trade. A significant portion of the discussion explored the feasibility and strategic value of developing a regional electricity market for South-East Asia, with India potentially leading the initiative.

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