In the bustling heart of Delhi, amidst the towering skyscrapers and vibrant markets, a quiet revolution is taking place. A rooftop solar installation, barely noticeable in the urban sprawl, is quietly generating clean electricity, powering the homes and businesses below. Thousands of miles from national capital, in the aspirational districts of Jharkhand, two villages of Sehal and Chatti are using IoT-enabled smart power management systems to efficiently power productive loads such as irrigation pumps, oil expeller, rice huller, groundnut sheller, flour/spice grinding mill, and electric rickshaws. Touted as Climate Smart Village solutions, this first-of-its-kind system ensures 100% capacity utilisation of solar panels by diverting power to different loads based on demand. This unique amalgam of tech and renewable energy is benefitting more than 100 families in these two villages. These small-scale initiatives are a microcosm of India's broader energy transition. A sneak peek into what India’s energy future could look like—one that’s cleaner, more efficient, and driven by technology.

India is at a critical crossroads. As the world’s third-largest energy consumer, our $3.4 trillion economy, with its sights set on reaching $7 trillion by 2030, has a lot going for it. It is benefiting from multiple mega forces in the form of favourable youthful demographics and increased urbanisation and industrialisation. The country is faced with the enormous challenge of meeting its growing energy demands while transitioning to cleaner, more sustainable energy sources.

With its ambitious goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2070, India’s energy transition needs more than just an increase in renewable energy capacity; it demands a complete transformation. To accelerate its energy transition and position itself as a global leader in clean energy, India must heavily invest in an all-electric and digital revolution—one that is driven not only by supply-side changes but also by demand-side measures, focusing on efficiency and innovation.

The All-Electric imperative

India’s transition to a solar and wind powered future hinges on a fundamental shift. A shift from a centuries-old energy system to a future that will see a convergence of digital and electric. This is Electricity 4.0 - the fastest pathway to a more decarbonised, green, and sustainable future for India - a More Electric, More Digital India. Electricity is the most efficient form of energy, 3-5 times more efficient than any other source and the best vector of decarbonisation. Together, with digital technologies like data analytics, IoT, AI, digital twins, it has the potential to eliminate wastage of energy and resources by allowing us to make energy use visible, meaningful, and actionable.

As per our own research models, we see India’s energy transition enabled with the convergence of electric and digital. Digital grids, IoT-enabled distributed energy resources & microgrids, super-efficient buildings, industries powered with advanced automation tech, and smart cities, collectively, could reduce 75% emissions in the next 25 years!

It is no surprise then that India is focused on electrifying the key sectors of the economy, including industries which account for a staggering 70 gigawatt of the country's total power consumption. It is, thus, vital that heavy industries such as steel, cement, and chemical production—critical to India’s economic growth—switch over to renewables and digitise their processes to cut down on waste and energy demand, which in turn could help to boost profits.

There are successful examples across the continent, in Brazil, of a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) business. The business was able to reduce around 100k tCO2e/year by redesigning the process – switching from gas turbine compressors and gas engine water pumps to electrical driven packages. Closer home in India, in the cities of Panna and Hamirpur, where cement production has long driven local development, cement plant companies have taken steps to electrify key processes. This shift toward electrification, combined with energy-efficient technologies, has significantly reduced emissions adding a touch of green to the grey sector.

Making India smarter through digitalisation

Electrification alone, however, is not enough. To truly unlock the potential of an all-electric future, India must invest in digital technologies that can optimise energy use and make the grid smarter and more resilient. In northern India, for example, one of the distribution utilities has piloted the use of Automated Demand Response (auto-DR) management system with 200 households which witnessed a potential reduction of 10% per consumer on the demand side. What it essentially means is that the digitalisation of the energy management will increasingly allow consumers to monitor their energy consumption in real time while providing valuable data that utilities can use to predict demand, reduce energy waste, and manage supply more efficiently.

Grid digitalisation is another crucial component of India’s energy transition. With the increasing share of renewable energy—especially from intermittent sources like solar and wind—India’s grid needs to be flexible and smart enough to integrate these energy sources while maintaining stability. The deployment of smart grids will allow for dynamic load management, ensuring that renewable energy is used efficiently, and minimise AT&C losses. Some discoms in North India have undertaken pilot programs to build the advanced meter infrastructure including deployment of Smart Meters which have brought down the AT&C Losses and given the hope of turning the discoms profitable.

A call to action for India’s energy future

India’s energy transition is an enormous undertaking, but it presents a remarkable opportunity. To achieve this, India must not only embrace an all-electric and digital revolution but leverage demand-side measures to reduce overall energy consumption. This revolution is already underway in pockets across the country with Electric vehicles hitting the streets of major cities, industries adopting energy-efficient technologies, and smart meters helping households monitor and reduce their energy usage. However, these examples must scale quickly and be supported by significant policy and financial investments if India is to meet its climate goals.

Achieving this vision will require bold government policies, strong public-private partnerships, and a commitment to long-term investments in infrastructure, innovation, and education. Additionally, a national framework for demand-side management, alongside investments in energy efficiency programs, will be critical to ensuring that India doesn’t just meet its energy needs by increasing supply, but also by reducing waste and using energy more intelligently. As India’s urbanisation accelerates, ensuring that new cities are built with energy-efficient technologies and digital grids will be vital for long-term sustainability.

It’s a future where the solar installation in Delhi and the climate-smart villages in Jharkhand aren’t just isolated stories—they’re the cornerstones of a new India, one that is powered by clean energy, driven by technology, and poised to lead the world into a sustainable future. 

(Deepak Sharma serves as the Zone President - Greater India and MD & CEO, Schneider Electric India)