Power System Technology
Our Power system technology practice uniquely combines extensive core power sector expertise with a deep understanding of cutting-edge technologies to deliver innovative solutions for the power and utilities industry. With proven experience across power generation, grid monitoring, load despatch, transmission, and distribution, our dedicated teams focus on diverse areas including power system operations, market operations, logistics support, system monitoring, mobility solutions, and emerging technologies. Serving numerous national and regional clients in India and expanding internationally, we are at the forefront of guiding the sector through digital transformation.
Our vision is to lead the modernisation of the power industry by empowering utilities, regulators, and energy companies with advanced tools and strategies, fostering a smarter, more reliable, and environmentally sustainable power grid for the future.
Our value proposition
We bring deep capability and domain experience to the delivery of power sector engagements. As the oldest power sector consulting firm in India, with nearly 30 years of experience, we have advised clients across the power value chain.
We have implemented digital solutions for stakeholders including system operators (NLDC/RLDCs/SLDCs), transmission and distribution utilities (STUs/Discoms), and regional power committees (ERPC/NERPC). Our multi-stakeholder expertise spans digital transformation, automation of business functions, regulatory and policy frameworks, and an understanding of Indian power market dynamics. Close engagement with central and state-level stakeholders lets us bring contextual insight, helping clients navigate challenges specific to their environment. Beyond advisory, we have designed, built and now run the platforms that carry India’s open access, scheduling, ancillary services and settlement processes.
Our differentiators:
- Deep sector and regulatory expertise
- Holistic approach
- Accelerators and reusable components
- Global capabilities, local context
- Digital engineering and applied AI
- High-quality engineering
- Specialist power sector support
Deep sector and regulatory expertise
Our specialists combine power sector experience with detailed knowledge of India’s regulatory and market environment. Their experience spans system operators, transmission and distribution utilities, power exchanges, generators, traders and regional power committees, alongside work with central and state regulators. This cross-sector perspective helps clients understand how regulatory and market changes affect processes, data and decisions across the transaction lifecycle.
Holistic approach
We support clients across the delivery lifecycle — from policy and regulatory advice and operating-model design to technology build, deployment and ongoing operational support. Our work spans generation, transmission, distribution and electricity markets. Connecting sector, process and technology expertise helps maintain continuity from the initial business case through to live operation.
Accelerators and reusable components
Our ready-to-deploy accelerators and reusable components have been built while addressing Indian power sector challenges at national, regional and state levels for system operators, transmission utilities, distribution companies, generators and regional power committees. They are not generic technology builds: they incorporate regulatory workflows, settlement logic, and interfaces with exchange, metering and scheduling systems shaped by the way India’s power sector operates. Starting with tested components shortens the path to go-live, reduces implementation risk and allows teams to focus on client-specific requirements.
Global capabilities, local context
We draw on PwC’s global network, delivery experience and technology relationships, adapting relevant practices and reference architectures to India’s regulatory framework, market design and operating environment. This combines access to global capabilities with local delivery experience and contextual judgement.
Digital engineering and applied AI
We combine digital engineering, data and analytics to modernise workflows and improve operational decision-making. Where the use case and data maturity support it, we apply machine learning and generative AI to areas such as forecasting, regulatory analysis and performance monitoring. Security, governance and human oversight are considered from design through to operation.
High-quality engineering
High-quality engineering underpins our work on pan-India critical infrastructure built to serve 25,000 concurrent users and sustained in live operation for more than four years without a major service interruption. The fault-tolerant architecture incorporates high availability, disaster recovery and near-disaster recovery, while automation supports regulatory timelines measured in minutes. This makes service continuity a core feature of the platform’s design and operation.
Specialist power sector support
Our power sector support team combines platform knowledge with an understanding of market processes, settlement cycles and regulatory timelines. This context helps the team assess incidents, coordinate resolution across connected systems and prioritise time-critical operations. Support is aligned to how each platform is used, as well as to the underlying technology.
Choosing PwC means working with one firm that advises on the regulation, builds the platform and runs it in live operation.
Solution areas
This solution streamlines open access transitions by coordinating activities among buyers, sellers, traders, and grid operators. The workflow involves the online submission of applications, automated processing based on grid transfer capability constraints, and electronic issuance of approvals, including the exchange of consents with relevant load despatch centres.
This solution facilitates electricity scheduling for various entities. It has a provision for the declaration of generation capacity and demand, matching of demand-supply, merit order despatch, creation of schedules, intra-day revision of schedules and finalisation of schedules for sellers and buyers.
This offering manages data received from electricity meters installed at utility interface points (e.g., generator ex-bus, transmission-distribution, etc.). It has provisions for mapping meters with interface point, configuring meter details, validating data and calculating electricity flow at each interface point
This solution prepares electricity accounts for each entity and calculate transmission losses. It has the feature to generate imbalance settlement accounts as per the regulatory framework. The comprehensive solution also includes payment collection, integrating with leading banks and automated reconciliation, tracking TDS payment and performing 26 AS reconciliation.
This solution assists in creating and approving requests for planned outage and restoration of transmission elements.
This offering automates logbook and operational activities in the control room. It provides real-time interactive dashboard for tracking shift activities.
The tool supports system operator in managing billing, collection and disbursement of fees and charges. It can handle entity-wise billing and reconciliation. The user can configure tax parameters, regulatory levies, incentives and penalties, etc.
This offers a capability to analyse various parameters captured in the entire solution for efficient planning, operation and faster decision making. It has the capability to generate standard and customised reports and dashboards for stakeholders.
This option facilitates ancillary market starting from utility registration, market requirements for day ahead and real-time horizon, bid aggregation and encryption, market clearance, results declarations. Realtime ancillary despatch to balance the grid combining market cleared data, un requisitioned power from generator schedule and emergency generator pool. Energy accounting and reporting.
Optimising power sale and purchase costs helps utilities achieve better asset utilisation, faster decision-making, and improved trading efficiency. Real-time visibility of portfolios and enhanced regulatory compliance contribute to greater grid security.
The solution enables ISOs to optimise variable costs through economic despatch, using automation and real-time data integration with external systems. Its robust design adapts to regulatory changes and integrates seamlessly with existing energy scheduling for optimal results.
Forecasting of future energy demand and supply to provide insights for energy planning, infrastructure development, capacity expansion and load balancing. RE forecasting leveraging advanced ML algorithms using weather, satellite data identifying complex patterns between atmospheric conditions and energy generation.
Comprehensive solution for payment collection integrating with leading banks and automated reconciliation. Tracking TDS payment and performing 26 AS reconciliation.
Solution optimizes transmission corridor usage to handle real-time market transactions, running 48 sessions daily across 3 Indian power exchanges. Our solution enables rapid data validation and flow optimisation within a 7-minute window, preventing session failures and ensuring grid security.
Planning support for transmission line routing, balancing technical, environmental and land constraints to identify viable corridors before detailed survey and construction.
Dashboards and operational metrics that give utilities a consolidated view of network, commercial and service performance for day-to-day monitoring and management reporting.
A comprehensive solution for regulatory chatbots, generative AI grid assistants, scenario planning, simulation, and "what-if" analyses. The platform features explainable AI through SHAP analytics, automated observations and recommendations enabled by real-time monitoring, regulatory reporting capabilities, an executive dashboard, and natural language summaries.
Application development approach advantages
Modern tech stack
Build on modern tech stack based on microservice principles, greater agility in development and deployment.
Automated deployment
Automated CI/CD pipelines streamline the deployment process.
Containerisation with Docker and Kubernetes
Orchestrates the deployment, scaling, and management.
DevSecOps integration
Automates security compliance and vulnerability management.
Proven and tested solutions
Built on tried-and-tested accelerators deployed across India.
Seamless integration
Seamless integration with national, regional, states, PXs and other third-party applications.
Standardised APIs
ensuring effective communication and interoperability with other systems.
Simplified management
Centralised intuitive management interfaces enable easier configuration and monitoring.
Customisable configurations
Businesses can customise the platform by changing the configuration from user interface. E.g. master data, utility configurations, accounting parameters.
Deployment on new business unit
Step by manual guides, video tutorials, automation scripts.
In the event that changes are required to comply with new or state-specific regulations, PwC can implement these modifications on top of the base product with customization.
Statistics
Our achievements
Value created
Our solutions create value and equip policymakers with the insights to shape holistic power system and market regulations.
Alongside these, standard reports published to the website extend transparency to the wider market, and a complete audit trail across the settlement cycle strengthens regulatory compliance.
Selected work
- Power system operation automation
- Transmission network access management
- Ancillary services for grid balancing
- Renewable open access management
- Security-constrained economic despatch
- Energy portfolio management
- Demand and renewable generation forecasting
- Control room management
Power system operation automation
Clients: state load despatch centres across multiple states
The challenge
State system operators need to coordinate scheduling, accounting, metering and settlement activities across a growing number of grid users. In some operating environments, disconnected processes and legacy systems made interoperability, scalability and stakeholder coordination difficult.
Our approach
We developed an integrated platform spanning energy scheduling, meter data management, network access management, energy accounting, deviation settlement, financial accounting, analytics and reporting. The solution supports configuration-led regulatory change, scalable processing and secure integration with exchanges, generators and distribution utilities.
The outcome
The platform established a common operational record for participating stakeholders and reduced reliance on disconnected processes. It supports more timely scheduling, accounting and settlement, while giving system operators and regulators access to consistent data for monitoring compliance and operational performance.
Transmission network access management
Client: a national system operator
The challenge
Fragmented processes and disconnected systems limited the ability to manage short-term open access consistently at a national scale. Applications required coordination across multiple entities, while growing transaction volumes increased the need for faster processing, traceability and secure data exchange.
Our approach
We developed a centralised national registry covering entity registration, bilateral applications, e-bidding, standing clearance, integration with power exchanges, curtailment and outage handling, payments, financial accounting and analytics. The platform uses container-based orchestration, standards-based integration, high-availability design and disaster-recovery arrangements to support national-scale operation.
The outcome
The platform created a national digital workflow for short-term open access and improved transparency for participating entities. PwC’s published case study on the National Open Access Registry (NOAR) reports a 90% reduction in average application-processing time, more than 150,000 transactions in three years of operation and a 10% increase in participation in the first year.
Ancillary services for grid balancing
Client: a national system operator
The challenge
The move to market-based procurement of ancillary services required the system operator to aggregate and clear bids received from power exchanges within defined time blocks. It also created a need for a consolidated view of available reserves and timely despatch instructions to service providers across India.
Our approach
We developed a market-clearing and despatch capability that consolidates bid data from power exchanges, aligns it with reserve requirements and applies a linear-programming optimisation engine. The solution coordinates market-based and regulated ancillary despatch and issues entity-level despatch quantities and schedules to the scheduling system.
The outcome
The solution supported the operationalisation of market-based reserve procurement and provided a consolidated view of reserve availability and despatch. These capabilities help the system operator respond to balancing requirements and support the secure integration of variable renewable energy.
Renewable open access management
Client: a national system operator
The challenge
Green energy open-access rules expanded the range of eligible consumers and increased the need to coordinate applications across central and state-level entities. A scalable digital process was required to manage differing requirements while providing applicants with clear status and traceability.
Our approach
We developed a centralised online platform covering entity registration, application submission, concurrence across relevant authorities, billing, payments, waivers, analytics and reporting. API-based integrations connect the platform with surrounding systems and help maintain a consistent application journey.
The outcome
The platform provides a single national window for green open-access applications and routes them through the relevant approval process. This improves transparency, reduces administrative effort and makes participation easier for eligible entities.
Security-constrained economic despatch
Client: a state load despatch centre · Engagement: pilot
The challenge
The system operator wanted to evaluate optimisation-based scheduling before considering full-scale implementation. This required a pilot that could run alongside the existing merit-order process without affecting live operations, while validating data from generation, distribution, market, SCADA and metering systems.
Our approach
We developed a parallel online pilot with auditable data and calculation records, a preprocessing and validation layer for standardising formats and managing missing data, and a despatch optimisation engine benchmarked against the existing merit-order process. A dashboard provided near-real-time visibility of despatch, marginal prices, reserves and congestion.
The outcome
The pilot indicated potential procurement-cost benefits under centralised despatch and gave the operator visibility of marginal prices, congestion and reserves. It also provided an auditable evidence base for evaluating whether and how to proceed with wider implementation.
Energy portfolio management
Clients: distribution utilities and power traders
The challenge
Growing trading portfolios, increasing data volumes and evolving regulatory requirements made spreadsheet-based portfolio management difficult to scale. Utilities needed a consolidated view of power-purchase costs, imbalance exposure and compliance obligations at the relevant scheduling and settlement intervals.
Our approach
We developed a platform covering energy-scheduling optimisation, power-market participation, billing and verification, imbalance accounting and settlement, analytics and reporting. The solution uses demand and renewable-generation forecasts and integrates with scheduling, exchange, regional and metering systems.
The outcome
The platform supports more informed scheduling and market decisions by bringing portfolio positions, forecasts, costs and settlement data into one view. It helps users identify procurement and imbalance exposure earlier and maintain a more consistent compliance record.
Demand and renewable generation forecasting
Solution capability for distribution utilities and power traders
The challenge
Demand and renewable-generation forecast errors can increase imbalance exposure and affect decisions about scheduling, purchasing and selling power. Utilities need forecasts that can be refreshed across different planning horizons and interpreted in the context of changing weather and demand conditions.
Our approach
We developed a forecasting capability that can run statistical, machine-learning and deep-learning models in parallel, compare performance by forecast horizon and produce ensemble outputs. It is designed to support forecasts from week-ahead to real time and incorporate weather, calendar and event-related variables.
The potential value
The capability can help users identify emerging demand gaps, compare forecast performance and understand the factors contributing to error. This provides a stronger analytical basis for scheduling and power-market decisions.
Control room management
Clients: system operators
The challenge
Outage requests for generators, transmission lines, busbars, reactors, circuit breakers and transformers were managed without a common repository or consistent approval path. Manual control-room logs also limited real-time visibility of equipment status and the reasons for outages.
Our approach
We developed a central repository and hierarchical approval workflow for planned and unplanned outages across system elements. The solution combines an e-logbook and control-room automation with approved outage and SCADA data, and supports outage coding, shift rostering, outage reporting and voltage management.
The outcome
The solution gives operators a common record of system elements and outages, supported by a real-time monitoring dashboard. Duty rosters, shift activity and the operational log are managed within the same workflow, improving traceability and handover between control-room teams.
Inside the platforms
A closer look at how selected platforms address time-critical decisions, high-volume data and complex system interfaces while meeting operational and regulatory requirements.
Within the transmission network access platform · Client: a national system operator
The objective
Use available transmission corridor margins efficiently while maintaining the network-security constraints required for real-time market transactions.
The operating challenge
India’s grid regions are connected by inter-regional corridors spanning multiple bid areas. Power exchanges provide cleared real-time market results in repeated sessions throughout the day, leaving the system operator a limited window to validate flows, assess congestion and issue the required schedules.
Our approach
We developed a real-time market module that combines standing-clearance data, corridor constraints and results from the power exchanges. It calculates bid-area and corridor flows, checks for congestion, applies optimisation where rerouting is required, and issues entity-level schedules and updated network margins to the scheduling system.
The outcome
The module supports reliable processing of real-time market transactions within the available operating window. More efficient use of corridor margins can increase the volume of transactions cleared while maintaining network-security constraints.
Within the power system operation automation platform · Clients: state load despatch centres
The objective
Validate and process interface-meter data within regulatory timelines to support energy accounting and imbalance settlement.
The operating challenge
The operating environment includes more than 700 extra-high-voltage substations, 3,000 interface points and 6,000 interface meters. Data arrives in different structures and formats from multiple manufacturers through metering-data acquisition systems, manual uploads and regional systems. The platform must also support varied energy-computation scenarios under the applicable framework.
Our approach
We developed a validation, estimation and processing layer that manages missing or abnormal data, compares main and check meters, and supports load profiling, averaging, manual readings, batch processing and API-based integration. The processed data supports energy, imbalance, transmission-loss and reactive-energy accounts.
The outcome
The solution brings meter data from multiple sources into a consistent and auditable process. Configurable validation and computation rules reduce manual intervention and help operating teams complete energy accounting and imbalance settlement within the required timelines.
Within the power system operation automation platform · Clients: state load despatch centres
The objective
Produce day-ahead and intraday despatch schedules that meet state demand while accounting for contracts, allocations, availability and the merit-order stack.
The operating challenge
Scheduling depends on timely inputs from multiple external systems. Availability data comes from inter-state and intra-state generating stations, renewable generators, power exchanges and bilateral transactions, while demand data is provided by distribution utilities. These inputs arrive on different timelines and in different formats, and scheduling procedures vary between central and state-level operations.
Our approach
We developed a despatch engine that brings availability and demand data together through dedicated interfaces, validates the inputs and creates a consolidated despatch position. It then applies the merit-order stack within contractual and allocation constraints for day-ahead and intraday scheduling cycles.
The outcome
The solution automates core scheduling activities, gives participating stakeholders a common operational view and supports consistent application of contractual and merit-order rules. Configurable workflows and parameters also help the platform adapt to regulatory and procedural changes.
Preparing for what comes next
India’s power system continues to evolve as market design, resource-adequacy arrangements, reserve mechanisms and utility digitalisation programmes develop. The capabilities described above — secure integration, scalable data processing, configurable regulatory workflows and time-critical optimisation — provide a foundation that can be adapted as operational and regulatory requirements change.
Talk to our power system technology team
For a conversation about platform capability, delivery approach or the reforms ahead.
Success stories
Supporting India’s power market transformation via National Open Access Registry (NOAR) for GRID-INDIA
