Skip to content
IndiaStand

Ministry

Ministry of Power

The Ministry of Power is the Government of India's apex department for the electricity system — generation, the inter-state transmission grid, and distribution reform. It administers the Electricity Act, 2003 and the Energy Conservation Act, and owns the state's largest power utilities. It is the institution that runs the wires and the market into which India's renewable build-out is integrated, even though solar and wind capacity itself is driven by a separate ministry.

Updated

Headquarters
Shram Shakti Bhawan, Rafi Marg, New Delhi
Constituted
Standalone ministry, 2 July 1992
Installed capacity (national)
~532.7 GW total (31 Mar 2026), ~53.2% non-fossil
Key statutes
Electricity Act 2003; Energy Conservation Act 2001 (amended 2022)
Coverage since 194823 recorded events ·100% from official & primary sources
1945–1949: 1 event1950196019701975–1979: 1 event19801990–1994: 1 event19902000–2004: 1 event20002005–2009: 1 event2010–2014: 2 events20102015–2019: 1 event2020–2024: 8 events20202025–2026: 7 events

Role

The Ministry of Power runs the state’s electricity system. Its core remit is the physical and financial backbone: the inter-state transmission grid operated through the Grid Controller of India, thermal and large-hydro generation policy, and the perennial problem of distribution — the state-owned discoms that sell power to consumers and have historically lost money doing so. It administers the Electricity Act, 2003 and the Energy Conservation Act, works through statutory bodies including the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) and the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), and owns the country’s largest power utilities — NTPC, Power Grid Corporation, NHPC, and the lenders PFC and REC.

A crucial division of labour shapes everything the ministry does on the energy transition: solar and wind capacity is driven by the separate Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), while the Ministry of Power owns the grid the renewables plug into, the thermal fleet that balances them, large hydro, storage policy and the distribution utilities whose finances the ministry’s reform effort targets as the mix changes. It works alongside the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on the carbon market and the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas on the wider energy economy. When India talks about integrating renewables “into the grid,” that grid is this ministry’s.

Desk maintained by IndiaStand editorial cycles. Officeholders are transient; this dossier tracks the institution.

Timeline since 1947

  1. reference

    Electricity (Supply) Act, 1948

    Created the Central Electricity Authority and the framework of state electricity boards that ran the sector for half a century.

    source 1

  2. reference

    NTPC and NHPC established

    Central generation utilities were set up to build large thermal and hydro capacity beyond the reach of state boards.

    source 1

  3. reference

    Ministry of Power constituted as a standalone ministry

    Split out from the earlier Ministry of Energy / Department of Power, whose lineage runs back to the Ministry of Irrigation and Power at independence.

    source 1

  4. reference

    Electricity Act, 2003

    Consolidated the law on generation, transmission, distribution and trading; unbundled state boards and created independent regulators.

    source 1

  5. reference

    POSOCO incorporated to ring-fence national system operation

    Power System Operation Corporation was incorporated as a wholly owned POWERGRID subsidiary, separating grid despatch and system operation from the transmission owner; it was carved out further into a wholly owned Government of India company on 3 January 2017 under a gazette notification of 19 December 2016.

    source 1

  6. reference

    Northern, Eastern and North-Eastern grid collapse

    Cascading failures on 30 and 31 July 2012 took roughly 32 GW of generation offline and cut supply to about 620 million people across 22 states, the largest recorded outage; a three-member enquiry reported on 16 August 2012, faulting inadequate despatch-centre monitoring tools and overloaded inter-regional lines.

    source 1

  7. reference

    DDUGJY replaces RGGVY as the rural distribution scheme

    Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana superseded the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana, shifting the central rural programme from connection counts to feeder separation between agricultural and household load plus sub-transmission, distribution and metering strengthening.

    source 1

  8. reference

    All census villages declared electrified

    Leisang in Manipur was recorded as the last unelectrified census village, completing the DDUGJY village-electrification target ahead of its May 2018 deadline; subsequent reporting questioned whether the underlying village-level figures were overstated in some states.

    source 1

  9. reference

    Panchamrit pledges at COP26

    India committed to 500 GW of non-fossil installed capacity and 50% of installed capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030, and net zero by 2070.

    source 1

  10. official

    Energy Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2022

    Gave the central government power to notify a Carbon Credit Trading Scheme, later co-overseen by the Power and Environment ministries with BEE as administrator; it came into force on 1 January 2023.

    source 1

  11. official

    Electricity (Late Payment Surcharge and Related Matters) Rules, 2022 notified

    The rules imposed an instalment-and-surcharge regime on discom arrears to generators. Against legacy dues of Rs 1,39,947 crore as on 3 June 2022, the ministry recorded Rs 1,31,942 crore paid by 13 states and UTs through 39 EMIs, prepayments and reconciliations, leaving Rs 8,005 crore outstanding.

    source 1

  12. reference

    Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2022 referred to the Standing Committee on Energy

    The Bill proposed non-discriminatory open access to distribution networks so multiple discoms could supply the same area over shared wires, mandatory sharing of existing power purchase agreements, and a Cross-subsidy Balancing Fund; it was sent to the Standing Committee on Energy on the day of introduction in the Lok Sabha.

    source 1

  13. reference

    POSOCO renamed Grid Controller of India Limited

    The national system operator was renamed Grid Controller of India Limited (Grid-India), consolidating its identity as the government-owned despatch institution distinct from POWERGRID as network owner.

    source 1

  14. official

    Right of Way compensation for transmission lines repriced to market value

    The ministry revised its RoW guidelines to link compensation to land market value, raising tower-base compensation from 85% to 200% of land value and RoW-corridor compensation from 15% to 30%, framed as removing a land-acquisition bottleneck on lines needed to evacuate 500 GW of renewables by 2030.

    source 1

  15. official

    National Electricity Plan (Transmission) launched

    The CEA plan set out ~191,000 circuit km of new lines over 2022-32, raising inter-regional transfer capacity toward 168 GW by 2032 to evacuate 500 GW of renewables by 2030 and over 600 GW by 2032, alongside 47 GW of battery and 31 GW of pumped storage.

    source 1

  16. official

    Imported-coal blending advisory for thermal plants discontinued

    The ministry ended its standing advisory directing domestic coal-based generators to blend imported coal, citing improved domestic coal availability; plant stocks stood at 55.48 MT in March 2025 against a 66 MT target for March 2026.

    source 1

  17. official

    RDSS records AT&C losses down to 16.16% from 21.91%

    Under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme the ministry reported 19.79 crore prepaid smart meters sanctioned at Rs 1,30,671 crore plus loss-reduction works of Rs 1,52,854 crore, with Rs 38,187 crore released; AT&C losses fell to a provisional 16.16% in FY2025 from 21.91% in FY2021, and the ACS-ARR gap to Rs 0.11/kWh from Rs 0.69/kWh.

    source 1

  18. official

    Revised SHAKTI coal-allocation policy approved

    The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved a revised Scheme for Harnessing and Allocating Koyala Transparently in India, collapsing the eight existing paras of coal-linkage allocation into two windows for the power sector.

    source 1

  19. official

    50% non-fossil installed capacity reached — five years early

    The government stated that on 30 June 2025 non-fossil sources reached 242.78 GW of a 484.82 GW total (50.1%), meeting the COP26 goal of half its installed electricity capacity from non-fossil sources five years ahead of the 2030 NDC target.

    source 1

  20. official

    ADEETIE launched for MSME energy efficiency

    Assistance in Deploying Energy Efficient Technology in Industries and Establishments was launched with a Rs 1,000 crore outlay covering 60 clusters across 14 sectors, offering investment-grade audit support and interest subvention of 5% for micro and small enterprises and 3% for medium enterprises.

    source 1

  21. official

    CEA concurrence threshold for hydro schemes raised to Rs 3,000 crore

    A government notification revised the capital-expenditure limit above which hydro generating stations require Central Electricity Authority concurrence to Rs 3,000 crore, and exempted off-stream closed-loop pumped storage schemes from CEA concurrence irrespective of capital expenditure.

    source 1

  22. official

    Carbon Credit Trading Scheme compliance targets notified for four sectors

    The central government notified greenhouse-gas emission-intensity targets under the CCTS compliance mechanism for aluminium, cement, chlor-alkali and pulp and paper, covering 282 obligated entities; nine methodologies were published under the parallel voluntary offset mechanism.

    source 1

  23. official

    Non-fossil share reaches ~53% of installed capacity

    As of 31 March 2026 the government put non-fossil installed capacity at about 283.5 GW, or 53.2% of the ~532.7 GW total, and stated India ranked third globally in renewable-energy installed capacity; a record ~55 GW of non-fossil capacity was reported added in FY 2025-26.

    source 1

Frequently asked

What is Ministry of Power?
The Ministry of Power is the Government of India's apex department for the electricity system — generation, the inter-state transmission grid, and distribution reform. It administers the Electricity Act, 2003 and the Energy Conservation Act, and owns the state's largest power utilities. It is the institution that runs the wires and the market into which India's renewable build-out is integrated, even though solar and wind capacity itself is driven by a separate ministry.
When was Ministry of Power established?
Ministry of Power was established 1992.
What does Ministry of Power do?
Its remit covers The inter-state transmission grid and national grid operation, Thermal and large-hydro generation policy, Electricity distribution reform (discom finances, AT&C losses, smart metering), Administration of the Electricity Act, 2003 and Energy Conservation Act, Energy efficiency, demand-side management and the compliance carbon market (with MoEFCC).
What is the latest on Ministry of Power?
As of 2026-07-06: Non-fossil share reaches ~53% of installed capacity. As of 31 March 2026 the government put non-fossil installed capacity at about 283.5 GW, or 53.2% of the ~532.7 GW total, and stated India ranked third globally in renewable-energy installed capacity; a record ~55 GW of non-fossil capacity was reported added in FY 2025-26.

Official sources

The government's own pages for this institution — go straight to the primary.

Related briefs

Related