The Ministry of Power has announced the launch of a task force to establish the India Energy Stack (IES), an initiative aimed at creating a unified, secure, and interoperable digital infrastructure for the country’s energy sector.

The task force, comprising experts from the technology, power, and regulatory segments, will be headed by Nandan Nilekani, Co-founder and Non-Executive Chairman, Infosys. It will steer IES’ development, pilot implementation, and nationwide scale-up.

The Ministry stated that IES aims to address India’s fragmented energy systems and a lack of seamless digital integration. These issues remain key hurdles to energy transformation, despite the accelerated growth in the country’s renewable energy and electric vehicle sectors, as well as an increase in consumer participation in the energy market.

IES will be a digital public infrastructure (DPI) that ensures a standardized, secure, and open platform to manage, monitor, and support innovation across the electricity value chain.

The Ministry’s initiative has been approved under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) with REC as the program nodal agency. The RDSS was devised to improve the quality and reliability of power supply to consumers through a financially sustainable and operationally efficient distribution sector.

Manohar Lal Khattar, Minister for Power, said, “DPIs, such as IES, will play a vital role in integrating renewable energy, enhancing distribution company (DISCOM) efficiency, and delivering transparent, reliable, and future-ready power services.”

The energy stack will offer the following features:

• Unique identifications for consumers, assets, and transactions
• Real-time, consent-based data sharing
• Open application programming interface for seamless system integration
• Tools for consumer empowerment, market access, and innovation

The Ministry stated that it will partner with select utilities to undertake a 12-month proof-of-concept study, demonstrating the IES under real-world use cases. These demonstrations will include piloting the energy stack’s utility intelligence platform. This platform will be a modular and analytics-driven application. It will be built on the IES to support utilities, policymakers, and consumers with real-time insights and smarter energy management.

The Ministry expects the following outcomes from the task force:

• IES white paper for public consultation
• Pilot testing of the utility intelligence platform with DISCOMs in Mumbai, Gujarat, and Delhi
• National roadmap for IES rollout

In 2021, the Department of Science and Technology issued a call for research, development, and demonstration projects aimed at identifying and resolving significant challenges in digital transformation for the green energy transition.