As India’s power distribution companies grapple with rising demand, growing rooftop solar penetration and mounting financial stress, improving efficiency in the last mile has become a strategic imperative. In this context, Jaipur Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited’s (JVVNL) initiatives offer an instructive case study of how digitalisation and data-driven planning can strengthen operations. In this article, Arti Dogra (IAS), Chairman, Rajasthan DISCOMS, and Managing Director, JVVNL, highlights the discom’s initiatives to enhance operational efficiency amidst Jaipur’s complex urban-rural power network. She also talks about the challenges and opportunities of energy transition for JVVNL…
In 2012, India was witness to the world’s largest blackout – over 700 million people left without electricity as an outcome of a two-day grid failure. The incident exposed a harsh reality: the resilience of our power sector lies not just in generation, but in the agility and foresight of its distribution network.
Thirteen years later, India’s electricity grid has grown exponentially. Peak demand touched 250 GW in May 2025 while renewable capacity crossed 190 GW. Further, new demand drivers, including electric mobility and digital infrastructure, are reshaping the power sector landscape. This is a crucial moment of transformation for the power distribution segment, where the balance between reliability, affordability and sustainability is being constantly tested against a rapidly deteriorating balance sheet.
The efficiency imperative
The Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission’s recent tariff order for 2025-26 for Rajasthan’s discoms brings this critical balance into sharp focus. The order underscores the urgent need for Rajasthan distribution utilities to strengthen operations and maintenance (O&M) planning, improve data integrity, reduce distribution losses and align investment decisions with measurable performance outcomes. In short, efficiency is the pivot on which the sector must drive itself.
For Rajasthan’s discoms, these directions reaffirm a larger truth: Efficiency is no longer a mere target; it is the foundation of their financial and operational sustainability – the bedrock of their continued existence. Every percentage point improvement in loss reduction or demand forecasting translates into tangible savings on the one hand and better service outcomes on the other.
This premise of efficiency attains greater relevance in a state like Rajasthan, where the distribution grid operates under extreme diversity – from urban industrial belts to remote desert feeders extending over several kilometres; from electrifying scattered rural habitations to serving as the fulcrum of livelihood by powering agriculture in areas where water levels are extremely low. Decentralised solar generation under schemes such as PM-KUSUM, rooftop solar proliferation and agricultural load variations have added new layers of complexity to the grid. The challenge today extends beyond managing demand and supply to seamlessly integrating these dynamic and distributed energy flows into the system, without compromising reliability.
Rajasthan at the cusp of the energy transition
Rajasthan has emerged as a national leader in renewable energy, accounting for one of the highest shares in India’s installed solar capacity. For JVVNL, which serves over 5.5 million consumers, this energy transition brings both opportunity and responsibility.
The aggregate technical losses of discoms have been steadily declining, backed by targeted field interventions, vigilant and innovative enforcement strategies, and capital investment inflow under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme. Yet, localised challenges persist, especially in theft-prone or peri-urban areas as well as rural networks where agricultural transformers experience high burning rates due to overloading during irrigation peaks.
At the same time, procurement costs have started declining, driven by better planning, increased solar integration and daytime supply initiatives under the PM-KUSUM scheme. Over the past year, over 2,000 MW of decentralised solar power plants have been commissioned under the PM-KUSUM scheme and another 10,000 MW is in the pipeline. The task ahead is to sustain this trajectory through better forecasting, smart asset management and data-driven O&M planning.
Digitalisation as the new backbone
To meet these emerging challenges, the Jaipur discom has undertaken the Digital Utility Enhancement and Transformation (DUET) programme – a pioneering initiative that seeks to make JVVNL one of India’s first truly predictive utilities.
The DUET programme is being implemented in partnership with the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet and its technology partner Edge Electra, under the aegis of the energy department of the Rajasthan government. The primary objective of the programme is to create a digital twin of JVVNL’s entire network – from the warp and woof of its poles, lines and transformers to grid substations and the newly commissioned PM-KUSUM decentralised solar power plants. It envisages a high-fidelity virtual model that mirrors every operational parameter of the grid.
More than 1.4 million assets, including transformers, poles, feeders, substations and service lines, have already been geomapped and tagged, with a target of covering the entire network consisting of over 4.5 million assets. This digital twin forms the foundation of an advanced analytics platform that can simulate power flows, track asset health and, most importantly, forecast network stress in real time.
The platform integrates multiple data streams, from metering systems, SCADA inputs, consumer feedback to field inspections, into a single operational view. This helps the utility move from a reactive model, where teams respond after a fault occurs, to a predictive and preventive framework where maintenance, load balancing and investment decisions are data-led.
From the consumer perspective and, importantly, for field engineers, this DUET tool will serve as a practical instrument. It will enable them to prepare technical estimates faster and more accurately. This will help expedite the release of new connections, especially in the agriculture and domestic categories, leading to better and faster service delivery, while freeing up critical manpower to focus on improving supply reliability and quality.
Through this digital visibility, JVVNL will be equipped to identify overloaded transformers and feeders before a breakdown, thereby improving reliability, while reducing costs and inevitably, losses; optimise load despatch during peak periods, a critical aspect of energy management; reduce unscheduled interchange penalties through accurate demand forecasting; and prioritise maintenance based on asset criticality rather than routine cycles. All in all, it is a win-win situation for the discom.
The programme promises to deliver tangible outcomes. Predictive analytics is expected to reduce equipment downtime and technical losses significantly, while improving supply reliability and freeing up manpower for consumer-facing services. In financial terms, these operational efficiencies could save over Rs 2 billion annually through better procurement, loss control and optimised maintenance – an outcome that the hitherto loss-making power utility sees as a game changer.
Efficiency as the unifying theme
Efficiency in this new landscape extends beyond cost management. It encompasses accountability, agility and operational precision. A predictive, data-backed system allows the utility’s employees across all levels (from planning to field execution) to act on the same reliable information, ensuring coherence, responsiveness and real-time results while optimising costs.
For Rajasthan’s discoms, this shift is particularly crucial. As decentralised solar expands through PM-KUSUM and rooftop generation under the PM-Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana, the ability to plan, forecast and balance loads in real time will determine the stability and efficacy of the entire grid. Efficiency, in this sense, becomes the bridge between financial health and consumer satisfaction, ensuring that every investment yields measurable improvement in service quality.
The road ahead
Rajasthan today stands at the cusp of a new energy framework – one defined by distributed generation and consumer-centric operations backed by digital intelligence. The Jaipur discom’s transition from reactive to predictive management is not just a technology story; it is a template for how traditional utilities can revamp themselves for the future.
The road ahead rests on three cornerstones – continued loss reduction through targeted digital interventions, robust O&M and asset planning steered by analytics, and a culture of efficiency that permeates the entire chain of command in the discom.
As India moves deeper into the clean energy era, the role of distribution companies will be central in improving power reliability and affordability. The Jaipur discom’s tryst with the DUET model promises to bring foresight, data and discipline to the task of making the most complex networks efficient, resilient and consumer-centric.
Reliable electricity empowers people and empowered people power the nation.
(The views expressed in the article above are the author’s personal views.)
