India’s power sector is entering a phase where the core system challenge is coordination, not only capacity. Variable renewables, distributed energy resources, storage, EV charging, and more active consumers are increasing the number of actors and transactions that must be coordinated in near real time. At the same time, sector digitalisation is expanding rapidly through smart metering and utility IT modernisation, but the underlying data and process landscape remains fragmented across vendor silos and bespoke integrations.

IES is positioned as a sector-wide digital public infrastructure that creates common rails for trusted interaction: shared identifiers, secure data exchange, and interoperable service interfaces that allow systems to work together without requiring a central platform. The strategic argument is that without such a digital highway, the cost of integration rises non-linearly with every new use case, utility system, and market actor. This slows reforms, increases dispute and settlement friction, limits regulatory visibility, and makes innovation expensive to deploy beyond pilots.

The intended end-state is a power ecosystem where new services can plug in safely, utilities can adopt interoperable components without lock-in, and regulators and system operators can rely on auditable, decision-grade data flows. The session should therefore interrogate the big picture: the public value proposition, the path to national scale, and the institutional choices that determine whether IES becomes an enabling layer for innovation and reliability, rather than another set of standards that remain on paper. And opportunities to expand into other energy vectors.

FOCUS QUESTIONS:
• What is IES in practical terms for this audience, what is it not, and which high-cost frictions in India’s power sector does it directly remove (integration cost, data trust gaps, settlement disputes, slow onboarding, limited interoperability)?
• What should success look like by 2027 and beyond, stated as measurable outcomes that matter to utilities, markets, industry, and consumers, and what indicators would demonstrate that IES has moved beyond pilots?
• How should IES “productise” each priority use case so it is genuinely deployable at scale: what is the minimum bundle of specifications, reference implementations, data and API requirements, conformance tests, and operating responsibilities that a utility, market institution, and vendor can implement consistently without re-design each time?
• What is the adoption and incentive model that will actually move IES from pilots to sector-wide use: which elements need policy or regulatory mandates, which can be driven through procurement standards and programme conditionalities, and how do we align incentives across utilities, market institutions, technology providers, and
consumers?
• How do we balance openness with assurance: what must be standardised and certified to ensure safety and trust for critical workflows, while keeping the ecosystem competitive and preventing vendor lock-in or incompatible implementations?
• Can IES serve as a reusable reference DPI for other power systems, and what must be packaged for exportability?