Khattar, who holds the portfolios of Power, Housing and Urban Affairs, said the conference witnessed wide ranging and productive discussions on various issues related to power sector including inter-state transmission capacity, strengthening of power infrastructure and ensuring adequacy of resources.
He said under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Centre was continuously working in collaboration with the states to strengthen the energy infrastructure of the country.
Khattar said it was fourth regional conference being held in Chandigarh with the previous ones being held in Sikkim, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
India’s power system, he said, has evolved into a unified national grid, fulfilling the vision of ‘one nation-one grid’ and underlined the importance of a future-ready, modern, and financially viable power sector to fuel the country’s growth.
The minister boasted of having successfully met a peak demand of 250 gigawatt (GW) in May 2024 and India transformed from power-deficit to a power-sufficient nation and as on today, peak demand shortage is zero”.
Khattar, who also interacted with the media after the conference, during the meeting outlined the importance of continuous cooperation and coordination between central and the state governments in achieving the goal of “Viksit Bharat” by 2047.
Khattar laid emphasis on ensuring resource adequacy and necessary power generation capacity tie-ups. States should, while meeting their resource adequacy plan, also work on having adequate power generation mix including addition of nuclear generation capacity, an official statement said.
India’s peak electricity demand is projected to reach 446 GW by 2034-35 and meeting it sustainably requires proactive planning and continued coordination between the Centre, States, and stakeholders, the statement added.
Khattar, during the conference, said distribution utilities should further strive to improve efficiency through expediting infrastructure and smart metering works under Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme.
He lamented timely payment of government dues and subsidies remained a pressing issue as FY24 dues were still pending in few states, and gaps were more apparent in FY25 according to him.
The state should take strong steps to timely settle them as it adversely impacts financial health of utilities, he urged.
In his view, pre-paid “smart meters” would 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.
He said smart meters have huge potential in transforming the way consumers interact with utilities using the data analytics based on AI/ML tools and help them derive benefits using features in built in its application.
Khattar urged the states to work towards resolving the issues faced in development of intra-state transmission projects, including Right of Way issues.
States should explore diverse options for financing including from multilateral institutions.
Khattar said in the Union Budget 2025-26 allocation of Rs 1.5 lakh crore in 50-year interest-free loans to support states’ capital expenditures, has been done, which could greatly strengthen the transmission infrastructure.
The union minister further exhorted states to promote renewable energy coupled with storage solutions ensure reliability of supply of power.
“India is moving towards having increased share of renewable energy in total installed capacity and the same has increased from 32 percent in 2014 to 49 percent in April 2025.” He urged the states to implement Renewable Purchase Obligation guidelines, asking them to form dedicated teams for the critical planning.
Khattar highlighted the importance of cyber-security measures and islanding schemes as the effective measures to prevent power outage owing to cyber concerns and enable resilience of grid.
He said the distribution sector was the most critical link in the power sector value chain.
However, it faces challenges due to poor tariff structures, sub-optimal billing and collection, and delayed payments of Government department dues and subsidies, the minister added.
It is essential to reduce the AT&C losses and the gap between average cost of supply and average revenue, he said.
The states were further asked to engage with the Electricity Regulatory Commissions for cost-reflective tariffs and for timely issuance of tariff and true-up orders.
He highlighted that losses of utilities today add to cost of power for consumers and also deteriorates delivery of services to consumers and further, continued losses have cascading effect.
He assured the states of the Centre’s continuous support to further strengthen the power sector.
The meeting, among others, was attended by Anil Vij, Haryana Power Minister, his Punjab counterpart, Harbhajan Singh, Subodh Uniyal, Forest Minister, Uttarakhand), A K Sharma, Energy Minister, Uttar Pradesh), Ashish Sood, Power Minister, Delhi, Javed Ahmad Rana, Minister for Jal Shakti, Environment and Forest and Tribal Affairs, Jammu & Kashmir and Heeralal Nagar, Energy Minister Rajasthan.
The meeting was also attended by union power secretary, secretaries (power/energy) of the various states and UTs apart from heads of Central and state power utilities and senior officers of the Union Ministry of Power. PTI SUN AMK AMK
