CEA Conference on Making Indian Power Sector AI Enabled

The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) opened the first day of a two-day international conference and exhibition at the Manekshaw Centre, New Delhi, on 14 October 2026. The theme chosen for the event was Making Indian Power Sector AI Enabled, and the day's business was devoted to where artificial intelligence can be put to work across the electricity chain.

Who was present

Messages for the occasion were sent by Manohar Lal, Union Minister for Power and for Housing and Urban Affairs, and by Prahlad Joshi, Union Minister of Education, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and New and Renewable Energy. At the inauguration were Minister of State for Power and New and Renewable Energy Shripad Yesso Naik, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry and for Electronics and Information Technology Jitin Prasada, Power Secretary Pankaj Agarwal, CEA Chairperson Ghanshyam Prasad and Additional Secretary in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Mayank Tewari.

Launches and announcements

• CEA's Vidhyut Dwar Portal was launched during the inaugural session.
• The CEA Manual on Transmission Planning Criteria, 2026 was released.
• The CEA Employee Awards were given out for outstanding performance.
• CEA disclosed that it has already raised a team of 54 artificial intelligence enthusiasts, who will act as brand ambassadors and carry the work into every part of the power sector. Power utilities were advised to raise dedicated AI teams of their own.

The six parallel sessions

The technical programme on the opening day ran six thematic discussions at once: optimising generation through AI for conventional sources; regulatory reforms using AI; AI-enabled integration of renewable energy for a flexible grid; modernising distribution through AI; transmission modernisation, grid stability and system restoration through AI; and AI-enabled rooftop solar along with microgrids and mini-grids.

What each session examined

On conventional generation, the talk covered heat-rate and combustion tuning, flexible plant operation, predictive maintenance, digital twins, auxiliary-power optimisation and emissions monitoring. On regulation, participants weighed the use of analytics for examining aggregate revenue requirement and tariff filings, validating submissions, tracking compliance and watching markets, while stressing that AI should stay a decision-support tool under human supervision and cannot substitute statutory judgment or procedural fairness. The renewable session looked at forecasting of variable generation and demand, visibility of distributed energy resources, storage optimisation, congestion management and virtual power plants. Distribution drew on smart-meter and asset data for demand forecasting, outage detection, fault localisation, energy auditing, loss analytics, billing and consumer services. Transmission covered corridor planning, drone-based inspection with computer vision, dynamic line rating, inertia forecasting and black-start preparedness.

The common thread

Across the discussions a single argument kept returning: the sector must move past isolated demonstrations of technology towards a short list of use cases that can actually be implemented, resting on dependable data, interoperability, safeguards, institutional capacity and measurable performance. The event is part of a wider push for a coordinated approach to AI adoption across the electricity value chain, with secure digitalisation and a resilient domestic industry as the stated goals.