The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) is India’s top technical planning body for the power sector; the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) is the federal electricity regulator.

Twice has the CERC asked the CEA for its view on an important matter — load-generation balancing in the context of the difficulties faced by another national body — the transmission planner — Central Transmission Utility of India Ltd (CTUIL) in granting connectivity to renewable energy developers.

Twice has the CEA stayed mum, according to the CERC.

This has been recorded by the CERC in its explanatory memorandum to the draft fourth amendment to the Connectivity and General Network Access to the inter-State Transmission System Regulations, 2026.

The commission referred the matter to the CEA on December 19, 2025, and again on February 25, 2026. “However, no input was received from the CEA.”

The CERC goes on to make some regulatory changes “in such circumstances of planning uncertainty”.

It also cites the Ministry of Power’s 2021 rules, which state that the Central Transmission Utility “shall draw up plans for Inter-State Transmission System for upto next five years on rolling basis every year, identifying specific transmission projects... after considering the plans made by Central Electricity Authority (emphasis added)”.

The explanatory memorandum notes that the CTUIL has a backlog of connectivity applications for about 128 GW. It may be noted that renewable energy companies are facing a huge problem in securing connectivity to evacuate the power that their plants would generate.

Battery Smart plans big

Battery Smart, the battery swapping company, believes it has a blue ocean ahead. “It is a very big market,” the Gurugram-based company’s co-founder and CEO, Pulkit Khurana, observed in a chat with businessline. Electric vehicles make up barely 4 per cent of the two-wheeler and three-wheeler market; for all commercial 2Ws and 3Ws, battery swapping makes a lot of sense, he said. Swapping a battery takes under two minutes.

In FY26, Battery Smart’s topline rose by 60 per cent. While Khurana did not divulge more financial details, the company had earlier reported a revenue of ₹279 crore for FY25, up 49 per cent from the previous year. The company — which has raised about $200 million from Tiger Global, Blume Ventures and Ecosystem Integrity Fund — believes it is entering profitability, as its investment phase is nearing completion. Net profit, Khurana says, is about 18 months away.

Battery Smart is among the largest battery owners in the country, boasting nearly 3 lakh batteries with total capacity of 800 MWhr.

It is present in 75 cities with 1,600 battery swapping stations, serving one lakh customers.

Managing so many customers in diverse locations is the company’s biggest challenge, but also its defence against competition. It hones its competitive edge with its proprietary software.

Published on July 6, 2026