The Indian government plans to implement artificial intelligence-based solutions from established IT companies and startups to tackle the problem of power distribution losses.

India incurred a high transmission and distribution loss of 20.66%–more than any other country– in FY19. So far, 14 discoms from nine states have expressed their interest in leveraging AI solutions to reduce power losses.

The power ministry will shortlist 4-5 technological service providers, 2-3 established companies and 1-2 startups to solve problems identified in each discoms. Startups operating in the technology service provider space will receive grants up to 40 lakhs while established technology service providers will not receive any financial help.

REC Ltd, the designated agency for the programme, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with incubator-cum-technology partner SINE under IIT Bombay. 

The plan is part of a Rs 3.03 lakh crore reform-based and result-linked scheme, with a corpus of Rs 4 crore approved for the first year by the power ministry.

The government plans to implement smart metres as a way to cut losses at power distribution utilities and install 250 million metres for homes and commercial users.

“Huge data will be thrown up when we implement smart metres in a time-bound manner. We are conscious that this data should be analysed intelligently in a way that it leads to good actionable points for the utility managers and for the policymakers,” power secretary Alok Kumar said.