Govt. to roll out National Electricity Data Sharing framework in October: Power Secretary

The government is set to roll out the National Electricity Data Sharing Framework in October to facilitate structured and secure data sharing in the power sector, Pankaj Agarwal, Secretary at the Union Power Ministry, said on Wednesday.

A national-level data governance committee, comprising government officials and industry representatives, will also be constituted to ensure a coordinated approach. The committee will be chaired by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) Chairperson.

“After consultations with stakeholders, we have prepared the National Electricity Data Sharing framework and would want to assure that we would be launching this in October itself,” Mr. Agarwal said.

The Power Ministry had floated the draft framework for stakeholder consultation in June. It lays down broad principles for structured, secure and transparent data sharing, while ensuring non-discriminatory access and protecting critical information infrastructure.

The voluntary framework is intended to help utilities establish common data structures and provide clarity on what information can be shared, enabling startups and other industry players to use large datasets for analysis and decision-making, he told reporters on the sidelines of the Central Electricity Authority’s Brainstorming Conclave on the use of artificial intelligence in the sector.

“The whole idea is to give clarity, rather a starting point to utilities about data sharing — what kind of data they can share, what should be the data structure. If you want the industry, [potentially] start-ups, to utilise the large volume of data sets — then they have to be consistent, similar in structure, so that they can be gainfully leveraged for giving various decision options,” Mr. Agarwal said.

Data centre policy in the works

Separately, Jitin Prasada, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), said the government would roll out a policy for data centres, positioning India as a potential destination for hyperscale facilities.

“We are rolling out a policy for data centres because we think India is a very fertile ground for hyperscale datacentres,” he said at the conclave.

Mr. Prasada, however, flagged concerns over the potential impact of data centres on water resources and electricity supply, citing experiences in other countries where their growing power demand has raised concerns about electricity availability for other consumers.

“So, what happens then is that the consumer has to pay more for the power. We do not want to get into that [kind of issues],” he said.