In India, 1.3 million distribution transformers fail annually, according to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA). The most number of failures occur in the northern states (over 20 per cent), while the least is in Kerala (1.9 per cent).

This was discussed at a CEA meeting held on November 29, 2025, on the theme ‘Standardisation of distribution transformers design and related aspects for uniformity across the country’, which noted that private sector players such as Tata Power-DDL (Delhi) and CESC (Kolkata) achieved “remarkable performance” with failure rates below 0.5 per cent, “showing that reliability can be achieved by uniform design and disciplined maintenance”.

At the meeting, the Indian Electrical and Electronics Manufacturers Association (IEEMA) said that 90 per cent of transformer failures happen due to “moisture ingress”.

Uttar Pradesh, which came in for criticism, said that about 40,000 transformers had been retrofitted under an ongoing improvement project and emphasised the need for “third-party power quality audits and voltage monitoring”.

CERC moots 14% RoE for new storage in thermal plants

The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has released draft amendments to regulate situations where existing coal- and lignite-based power projects, or transmission licensees, install ‘integrated energy storage systems’ (IESS). A notable feature of this is 14 per cent return on equity for the additional capital expenditure.

The regulator has said that if a thermal power plant or a transmission licensee should desire to bring in battery storage system, incurring additional expenditure, it may do so and can secure a higher tariff — but it would first have to inform all the beneficiaries (customers) and file a petition for approval with CERC before spending on the project.

The fixed storage charge for an integrated energy storage system shall be shared by its beneficiaries as per their respective percentage share or allocation in the capacity of the generating station where the system is installed, according to the draft regulations. The proposed regulations also speak of rules for items of expenditure such as calculating depreciation, maintenance spares, and operations and maintenance (O&M).

Flexible RE is cheaper than round-the-clock supply

By definition, ‘firm and despatchable renewable energy’ is ‘renewable energy whenever I want it’, which calls for more flexibility — and, therefore, costlier than ‘round-the-clock’ (RTC) power. But two tariff approvals by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission have thrown up counter-intuitive numbers. FDRE is cheaper than RTC — FDRE tariff of ₹4.69, ₹4.70 and ₹4.70, respectively, for the companies Hexa Climate (300 MW), ACME (400 MW) and Avaada (60 MW); and RTC tariff of ₹5.06 for Hero Solar (120 MW) and Hexa Climate (100 MW), and ₹5.07 for Jindal Power (150 MW) and Sembcorp (50 MW).

Experts say this could be because the RTC projects may oversize storage capacity to ensure continuous supply. In any case, both FDRE and RTC are considerably cheaper than coal. In September, the regulator approved tariff of ₹5.83 and ₹6.07 for two thermal power projects of Adani Power, of 1,600 MW and 2,400 MW capacity, respectively.

More Like This

Published on December 8, 2025