From Power Networks to Digital Infrastructure: Unlocking More Value from Utility Corridors

Transmission fiber was primarily created to meet the communication needs of the grid. But where spare capacity exists, it can also become a commercially useful digital infrastructure asset.

November 05, 2026. By News Bureau

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articles

Rajshekhar Deshraj

Sterlite Electric

Power Networks

Digital infrastructure

Transmission fiber

Optical Ground Wire

IndiaAI Mission

Strategic Digital Asset

Transmission utilities-built fiber for a practical reason. Substations needed fast and reliable communication for protection systems, grid monitoring and operational control. Optical Ground Wire (OPGW) solved that requirement by placing optical fiber inside the earth wire already running along high-voltage transmission lines.

That engineering choice has gained a much wider purpose over time. The same fiber network connecting substations can also provide high-capacity connectivity for telecom operators, hyperscalers, enterprises and data centres. One physical corridor is now capable of supporting two essential networks – power and digital connectivity – without creating another linear infrastructure asset. The idea of convergence begins here, not with software or AI, but with infrastructure already stretched across the country.

Why Digital Infrastructure Begins with Utilities

The public discussion around AI and cloud computing usually revolves around chips, servers and data centres. Far less attention is paid to the networks that make those facilities usable. A data centre depends on dependable electricity, but it also requires multiple fiber routes to exchange enormous volumes of information with cloud regions, enterprise networks and internet exchanges. Redundancy is built into both power supply and communication because downtime carries significant operational and financial consequences.

Data centres are no longer concentrated in a handful of metros. The IndiaAI Mission has selected data centre infrastructure across multiple states to provide more than 34,000 GPUs for AI computing, signalling how digital capacity is spreading beyond traditional technology hubs. This increases the need for resilient power supply and geographically diverse fiber connectivity between cities, industrial clusters and cloud regions.

The Advantage Already Exists

Building a national fiber backbone is rarely limited by technology. Land access, approvals and civil construction often consume far more time than laying fiber itself. Transmission corridors offer a different starting point. They already connect generating stations, renewable energy parks, industrial regions and major load centres through secure rights of way. Where OPGW is installed, those corridors become continuous fiber routes that cross difficult terrain without repeated excavation.

This also improves network resilience. Telecom operators and cloud providers prefer geographically independent fiber paths so that traffic can be rerouted during accidental cable cuts, flooding or construction activity. Transmission corridors provide an alternative to conventional roadside networks, reducing dependence on a single route. The result is better utilisation of infrastructure that is already in service.

From Spare Capacity to a Strategic Digital Asset

Transmission fiber was primarily created to meet the communication needs of the grid. But where spare capacity exists, it can also become a commercially useful digital infrastructure asset. For utilities, this creates an opportunity to monetise existing fiber without building another physical corridor. For telecom operators, internet service providers, enterprises and digital infrastructure companies, it can provide access to differentiated and resilient fiber routes.

Importantly, the regulatory framework is also evolving in this direction. The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) had issued guidelines for the usage and sharing of OPGW and underground fiber optic cable, specifically permitting the commercial utilisation of spare fiber capacity for non-grid applications while protecting current and future grid communication requirements.

That balance is critical. The primary purpose of transmission infrastructure remains grid reliability. Commercialisation must therefore follow grid requirements rather than compete with them. But once those needs are secured, spare fiber can move from being an underutilised capacity to a productive infrastructure asset.

A Stronger Communication Layer for the Grid

Utilities benefit from the same network they make available to others. Modern transmission systems rely on continuous communication between substations and control centres. Digital substations, Wide Area Measurement Systems, synchrophasor technology and automated protection schemes all depend on low-latency data exchange to identify faults and maintain grid stability. Communication has become an operational requirement rather than a supporting feature.

The Central Electricity Authority’s National Electricity Plan (Transmission) projects substantial expansion of India’s interstate transmission network by 2032 to accommodate renewable energy zones and rising electricity demand. Communication infrastructure forms an integral part of that transmission planning because modern grid operations depend on continuous, low-latency data exchange.

Infrastructure with Greater Utility

The most valuable infrastructure is often the one capable of serving more than its original purpose. OPGW demonstrates that principle through a simple engineering design. A transmission line continues to perform its primary role of carrying electricity while the fiber within it supports digital connectivity for multiple industries.

Manufacturing facilities, logistics parks, enterprise campuses and data centres increasingly require both services at the same location. Planning power and fiber together reduces duplication, improves asset utilisation and creates stronger infrastructure without expanding the physical footprint of development.

India’s digital economy will continue to depend on data centres, cloud platforms and AI computing. None of them operates in isolation. They rely on physical networks that connect energy with information across thousands of kilometres. Transmission corridors equipped with OPGW show how utility infrastructure can support that requirement with efficiency, resilience and long-term value for the wider digital ecosystem.

The opportunity is ultimately straightforward: use existing power corridors more intelligently. One corridor can continue to carry electricity, strengthen the communication needs of the grid and, at the same time, help build the digital connectivity that India's next phase of growth will require.

- Rajshekhar Deshraj, Chief Business Officer – Convergence & MSI, Sterlite Electric