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The Ministry of Power has released a draft National Electricity Data Sharing Framework to bring fragmented power sector data onto a single national platform.
The framework proposes 66 public datasets covering renewable energy, generation, transmission, distribution, grid operations and power markets.
Adoption will remain voluntary, raising questions over whether state utilities, public agencies and private power companies will share data consistently.
The draft also proposes privacy safeguards and secure data environments for research, innovation and AI-based energy solutions.
The Union government has proposed bringing fragmented power sector data onto a single national platform, but the new framework will not be mandatory for companies or public agencies.
The Union Ministry of Power released the draft National Electricity Data Sharing Framework, 2026, on June 22, 2026 and has invited public comments. The proposal seeks to standardise the sharing of data on renewable energy, power generation, transmission, distribution, grid operations and electricity markets.
But the ministry has clarified that adoption of the framework will be voluntary. This means government agencies, state utilities, distribution companies and private power producers can decide whether to participate.
The voluntary nature of the framework raises questions over whether it can deliver the transparency that India’s power sector has needed for years.
The draft comes as India works towards its target of 500GW of non-fossil fuel-based power capacity by 2030. Energy experts have long argued that power sector data is scattered across agencies, states and companies, making it harder to support research, investment, planning and regulatory oversight.
The ministry has formally acknowledged this problem in the draft for the first time, saying power sector data is affected by “fragmented data silos, disparate formats, limited interoperability, and the lack of a unified governance framework for data sharing”.
Despite generating large volumes of operational, planning, commercial and consumer data every day, the power sector has not been able to use this information effectively.
To address this, the ministry has proposed setting up a National Electricity Data Centre and a National Electricity Data Portal.
The aim is to create a common digital platform where public power sector data can be made available in standardised and machine-readable formats. The draft says this would improve planning, grid operations, research, innovation and regulatory decision-making.
However, ownership of the data will remain with the agencies or companies that generate it. They may share the information either through their own portals or through the national platform.
For the first time, the government has also compiled a detailed list of power sector datasets that could be made public.
The draft identifies 66 types of public datasets, including data on renewable energy, installed generation capacity, plant load factor, coal stocks, transmission lines, substations, power flow, state-wise electricity demand, peak demand, distribution company losses, per capita power consumption, number of consumers, progress of power projects and electricity market data.
If adopted widely, the framework could make a significant share of India’s power sector data publicly available in one place for the first time.
The proposal is especially important for the renewable energy sector.
The government wants to make public data on solar, wind, biomass and small hydropower capacity, rooftop solar progress, renewable energy generation and its share in total electricity generation. The data would be available state-wise and technology-wise.
At present, much of this information is scattered across the websites of different agencies and often available in different formats. A unified platform could make it easier for investors, researchers and policymakers to assess the real pace of India’s energy transition.
The draft is not limited to publishing data. It also proposes a governance framework for how power sector data should be classified and shared.
Under the proposal, shared data will be divided into two categories. Tier 1 will include information that can be made publicly available because it does not pose operational, confidentiality or national security risks.
Tier 2 will include data that can be accessed only after registration and know-your-customer verification. This may include feeder-level operational data, detailed grid information and de-identified smart metre data.
The draft places emphasis on consumer privacy.
It says personally identifiable information must be transformed before sharing, using anonymisation, tokenisation, aggregation, value banding and other techniques to prevent individuals or assets from being identified.
It also says data classification and sharing must comply with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, and guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
The draft recognises that the power sector is increasingly linked to transport, urban planning, climate action and financial services. It says electricity data can support planning for electric vehicle charging infrastructure, building energy efficiency, climate reporting and green finance.
This suggests power data could become part of a wider public digital infrastructure across ministries and sectors.
The proposal also refers to Indian artificial intelligence developers and start-ups. It says data-holding entities may create secure data environments where sensitive datasets can be analysed for research and innovation without being downloaded.
Indian AI developers and start-ups may be given priority in such cases. If implemented, this could support AI-based tools for power demand forecasting, grid management, renewable energy integration and energy efficiency.
The draft sets timelines for implementation. Each adopting institution must publish a metadata catalogue of available datasets within 12 months. Within 18 months, all public data should be searchable through the National Electricity Data Centre.
The Central Electricity Authority has been given responsibility for developing the structure and format of the data. The framework could mark an important step towards transparency in India’s power sector. But its impact will depend on whether states, distribution companies and private power producers choose to participate.
If major entities stay out, the national portal could remain incomplete.
The draft therefore marks a new beginning in power sector data governance, but also shows that transparency will not come from technical frameworks alone. It will require institutional will, wide participation and regular data sharing.
If those conditions are met, India could turn power sector data into a public asset, similar to weather, census or geospatial data.
