The Ministry of Power has proposed a national framework aimed at standardising how electricity sector data is shared across India. The initiative is designed to make information on power generation, transmission, distribution, demand, and renewable energy far more accessible, while also building in safeguards to protect consumer privacy and critical infrastructure.
Titled the draft National Electricity Data Sharing Framework, the proposal seeks to establish a unified system for collecting, classifying, and sharing electricity-related data generated by power producers, transmission and distribution companies, load despatch centres, regulators, and other sector agencies.
The Ministry of Power has circulated the draft among stakeholders, inviting comments and feedback.
Although adoption of the framework will be voluntary, the government has also proposed setting up a National Electricity Data Centre along with a National Electricity Data Portal. Together, these would form a nationwide ecosystem for structured electricity data sharing.
At present, electricity sector data remains fragmented across multiple agencies, often stored in different formats and defined inconsistently. The absence of a standard access mechanism has made it difficult for policymakers, researchers, and industry participants to effectively use the information.
To address this, the framework proposes dividing sharable data into two broad categories: public data and access-controlled data.
Public datasets—such as installed generation capacity, generation mix, market prices, and aggregated statistics—would be freely available.
Access-controlled datasets, including feeder-level operational data, detailed load flow studies, and de-identified smart meter data, would only be accessible after user registration and KYC verification.
The draft clearly excludes sensitive information from its scope. This includes cyber defence protocols, real-time strategic telemetry, transmission vulnerabilities, and pre-market power exchange bid data before clearing.
On the privacy front, the framework mandates that any personally identifiable information must be anonymised or de-identified before being shared. It also recommends the use of techniques such as anonymisation, aggregation, pseudonymisation, and tokenisation, in alignment with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act.
To ensure proper oversight, each utility adopting the framework may appoint a data governance officer responsible for data classification, handling data access requests, ensuring data quality, and managing grievances.
While public datasets are proposed to remain freely accessible for viewing, utilities may levy charges for bulk downloads or commercial API access. Academic institutions could receive concessional or free access, whereas government agencies would not be charged.
The framework also encourages wider use of APIs and secure data environments, enabling data sharing without requiring full dataset downloads. It further suggests that data providers may offer preferential access to Indian AI developers and startups through these secure systems.
Finally, the draft proposes that the Central Electricity Authority will define common data formats to bring uniformity and consistency across the electricity sector.
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