MoUs has been signed with Delhi and Rajasthan DISCOMs as the first 'Champion Utilities' under Grids of the Future
At Mumbai Climate Week 2026, the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet has launched the ‘India Grids of the Future Accelerator’, a national platform through which the Alliance will deploy up to USD 25 million to modernise power distribution, integrate renewable energy and storage, and prepare India’s grids for rapid demand growth.
In a press statement, the alliance says that it signed Memoranda of Understanding with distribution companies (DISCOMs) in Delhi and Rajasthan, designating them as the first cohort of “Champion Utilities” under the Grids of the Future initiative and with the All India DISCOM Association (AIDA).
Woochong Um
“India’s clean energy transition is entering a decisive new phase, one defined not by access alone, but by the ability of power systems to deliver reliability, flexibility and scale. Through the India Grids of the Future Accelerator, we are working hand-in-hand with utilities to build the digital, financial, and institutional capacity required to integrate renewables and storage at scale. Together with ENTICE 3.0, this marks a decisive shift from pilots to platforms, and from ambition to execution at scale,” says Woochong Um, CEO, Global Energy Alliance.
Jayant Sinha
“As India advances towards the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047, reliable, modern and future-ready power systems will be central to sustaining growth and energy security. The recent Union Budget reinforces the importance of strengthening infrastructure to enable the clean energy transition at scale. Initiatives like the ‘India Grids of the Future Accelerator’ demonstrate how coordinated, delivery-focused partnerships can translate national priorities into on-ground outcomes,” says Jayant Sinha, President of Eversource Capital and former Union Minister and Chair, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance.
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The statement adds that the launch brought together senior leaders from government, utilities, and the clean energy ecosystem, including Rajiv J Shah, President of the Rockefeller Foundation; Seema Paul, Programme Director for India at Sequoia Climate Foundation and Sujith Nair, CEO, FIDE.
Rajiv J Shah
“Today, energy access is the biggest obstacle to human well-being—but it’s also our biggest collective opportunity. India has become a global leader in delivering clean, affordable, abundant energy to the people of the world’s most populous country. Now, the ‘Grids of the Future Accelerator’ will build on that extraordinary progress, helping to modernize India’s grid through a first-of-its-kind public, private, and philanthropic collaboration. Thanks to the ambitions of the Global Energy Alliance and so many other partners, the Accelerator will transform India’s grid into a digitised, flexible system that can meet the energy demands of the 21st century and serve as a model for countries around the world,” says Shah, who formally announced the India Grids of the Future Accelerator at Mumbai Climate Week.
According to the statement, having helped drive near-universal electricity access, India now faces a new challenge: moving from connections to energy abundance. The Global Energy Alliance’s Grids of the Future initiative is designed to meet this moment as a globally coordinated, locally delivered platform that brings together governments, utilities, financiers, innovators, and technical partners to modernize power systems across the Global South.
The statement adds that by 2030, the India Grids of the Future Accelerator will advance grid transformation through its D4 framework, driving digitalisation (D1) of utilities through digital twins and advanced analytics, enabling smarter integration of distributed energy resources (D2), accelerating the democratisation (D3) of electricity by empowering consumers to participate in the energy system, and advancing the development (D4) of a strong innovation ecosystem to scale future-ready solutions.
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Through this integrated approach, the initiative aims to support 15 or more utilities, positively impacting nearly 300 million people across India. The accelerator will onboard an initial cohort of utilities for early implementation, convene government partners, technology providers, investors, and philanthropic funders into a delivery-focused coalition, and build toward a three-year, USD 100 million fundraising effort from 2026 to 2028 to unlock large-scale public and private investment, says the statement.
The launch brought together senior leaders from government, utilities, and the clean energy ecosystem
It adds that the event also marked the launch of ENTICE 3.0, the latest edition of the Alliance’s flagship Energy Transitions Innovation Challenge. This edition places a particular focus on energy storage and grid digitalisation, including the demonstration of non-lithium storage solutions and innovations capable of rapidly digitising large volumes of grid assets to support faster planning, operations, and renewable energy integration.
By directly connecting innovators with utilities, policymakers, and capital providers, ENTICE 3.0 aims to move promising technologies from pilots to large-scale deployment.
The statement adds that the announcements at Mumbai Climate Week 2026 reinforce the Global Energy Alliance’s long-term commitment to India, supporting national climate goals while advancing the country’s vision for growth, jobs, and energy security through 2047.
The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet was founded in 2021 by the Rockefeller Foundation, IKEA Foundation and Bezos Earth Fund, we work to unlock finance, strengthen institutions and transform markets, delivering progress that goes beyond individual projects to drive lasting systems change.
Through its two interconnected global pillars, Grids of the Future, focussed on innovation and infrastructure, and Energy and Opportunity, with a focus on jobs and livelihoods, it works toward its vision of a world where everyone has access to affordable, reliable, clean electricity and the means to use it to improve their lives, says the alliance.