RE: DIALOGUES 2026 Puts Transmission, Investment at Centre of India’s Power Planning
The discussions at RE: DIALOGUES 2026 were convened by Policy Perspectives Foundation and Orange Circle Energy.
October 15, 2026. By Abha Rustagi
The discussions at RE: DIALOGUES 2026, convened by Policy Perspectives Foundation and Orange Circle Energy, focused on rising electricity requirements, infrastructure constraints, regulatory stability and the economics of power generation.
Participants said power-sector planning needed to look beyond generation capacity and address the infrastructure and investment required to deliver electricity from production centres to consumption hubs.
Bhupinder Bhalla, a former secretary at the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, said India's energy transition needed to support broader development priorities, including domestic manufacturing, technological advancement, investment and job creation.
"India’s energy transition must be viewed in the wider context of its development priorities. Beyond expanding generation capacity, we need to strengthen domestic manufacturing, advance technology, mobilise investment and create jobs while safeguarding energy security. This calls for a coordinated approach to planning and implementation, with the Centre and states working together to address infrastructure and regulatory challenges," Bhalla said.
Nikesh Sinha, founder of Orange Circle Energy, used international per-capita electricity consumption benchmarks to examine the potential scale of India's future power needs.
He said transmission infrastructure required long lead times to build and faced constraints including right-of-way clearances, transformer availability and the geographical distance between renewable energy generation centres and demand hubs.
"India’s power-sector planning needs to look beyond how much electricity we can generate to how much the country will need, where that demand will emerge, and how reliably it can be delivered. Transmission infrastructure takes time to build, and generation and consumption centres are not always in the same locations. Anticipating these requirements and aligning transmission planning with generation, while also considering decentralised solutions, will be critical to meeting India’s future electricity needs," Sinha said.
The discussions also highlighted the need to deploy domestic capital effectively, strengthen electricity distribution networks and improve policy implementation as India expands its renewable energy capacity.
Wind energy was identified as a potential area of significant growth alongside solar power and other renewable sources, underscoring the need for coordinated investment and grid planning to accommodate a changing energy mix.
Safi Ahsan Rizvi, a former adviser to the National Disaster Management Authority and a representative of Policy Perspectives Foundation, called for better use of existing public resources to support renewable energy and disaster resilience.
"India needs to look beyond creating new funding mechanisms and examine how existing public resources can be strategically channelled towards national priorities such as renewable energy and disaster resilience. Even a small reallocation of resources, supported by the right institutional frameworks, can help unlock investment at scale. Building a dialogue between government and industry is critical to identifying these opportunities and translating public capital into meaningful outcomes," Rizvi said.
The dialogue brought together representatives from government policy bodies, energy industry associations, research organisations, universities and financial and development institutions to discuss the challenges facing India's power sector.
The event concluded with a call for continued engagement among policymakers, industry stakeholders, financial institutions and technology experts to address infrastructure, investment and regulatory challenges associated with India's energy transition.
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